Working with the community for a healthier, safer, greener and more caring Illawarra
Child Friendly By Design Project
The Child Friendly by Design Project , conducted by Healthy Cities Illawarra,is one of the strategies that make up Communities for Children Shellharbour, funded through the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy Initiative of the Australian Government. It aims to address the needs of young children and their families to give children the best possible start in life – directly assisting young children, and the context in which they live, in the Shellharbour area.
Based on United Nations and UNICEF strategies, the Child Friendly by Design Project seeks to involve children, young people and families in the design and redesign of spaces and places in Shellharbour. It also seeks to develop a set of Child Friendly Indicators to assist planners, developers and designers in Shellharbour to create more child and family friendly spaces.
The project will celebrate and promote the child and family friendly places and spaces that currently exist in Shellharbour. The use of the project’s Child Friendly Indicators will be encouraged for use within the planning department of local council, and also at the developers’ and urban designers’ tables.
Some planning processes do not involve giving children and families a ‘voice’ on what is important about the places and spaces that surround them. The Child Friendly by Design Project hopes to encourage children and families to become involved in the planning and design process, as well as providing opportunities with council, developers and designers for this to occur. Part of this process will involve asking members of the Shellharbour community – children, families, business people, developers – what they think a ‘child friendly’ space looks like. This information will be used to formulate the Child Friendly Indicators, that will help to continue to make Shellharbour more child and family friendly.
The Child Friendly by Design project team will help formulate working parties for the 2527 and 2529 postcodes, made up of representatives from all aspects of the business and service community, local council, developers and community members. These working parties will select a pilot site for either design or redesign, using our Child Friendly Indicators.
“This project is so exciting for so many reasons, but especially because it is one of the first of its kind in the nation. It’s Shellharbour’s chance to set the benchmark for Child Friendly by Design!” Debra Langridge, Project Coordinator, Child Friendly by Design Project.
Child Friendly by Design Project Contacts :
Debra Langridge
Project Coordinator
Phone : (02) 4226 5000
Hours: Tues and Wed, 8.45am to 3.45pm
Jill Vickery
Project Officer
Phone: (02) 4226 5000
Geoff Woolcock
Urban Planner & Design Consultant
Griffith University, Q’sld
Phone: (07) 3735 3511
Email: g.woolcock@griffith.edu.au
Where to from Here?!
The Child Friendly by Design Project aims to work with a diverse range of residents, organisations, agencies and services within the Shellharbour area. As a project with a strong community focus, we plan to engage with everyone in Shellharbour - young children, preschools, primary and high schools, parents, grandparents, representatives of local businesses and chambers of commerce, Shellharbour City Council, developers, urban designers, community agencies and services. All are essential to be involved. Giving all these groups a voice ensures that the project reflects the needs of Shellharbour.
A Regional Child Friendly by Design Workshop is being planned for April 2008. It will have a ‘hands on’ focus where we can begin to look at what makes Shellharbour a child and family friendly place. Representatives from all of the above groups and agencies will help identify places and spaces in Shellharbour that they enjoy using. This will help us to start identifying the distinguishing features and indicators that make these places and spaces child and family friendly.
Two Child Friendly by Design WorkingParties will be formed – one for 2527 postcode and one for 2529, and include representatives from the Regional Workshop. These two groups will help to develop the Child Friendly by Design Indicators, as well as select the best site in each postcode for design or redesign, using child and family friendly design principles.
We are excited about the opportunity to work with people in Shellharbour to continue to make places and spaces more child and family friendly.
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