A Place in Childhood (APiC) has been supporting young people and working to amplify their voices to lead change in Scotland since 2018. APiC’s approach to projects centres on overcoming barriers to participation and respecting children’s rights. With their multi-disciplinary team, APiC engages young people in various initiatives to ensure their voices are integral to community development and decision-making processes. Children and young people are at the heart of everything the organisation does, with the aim of bridging the gap between research, action and young people’s participation.
In 2023/24, APiC collaborated with children and young people, Aberdeen for A Fairer World, NESCAN Hub, Aberdeenshire Council, and twelve schools in Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire to develop Local Just Transition Plans. Around 200 children and young people aged 7-16 from twelve different schools directly took part in the project, with all students given the chance to provide feedback on their peers’ ideas. The project in Inverurie and Port Elphinstone was linked to the Children and Teenager’s Local Neighbourhoods Project, while the work in Huntly built on Teenagers and Public Space Research. APiC also engaged with local adult stakeholders to showcase the children’s ideas and plans.
The work informed the now published How to Guide which shows how to create neighbourhood or place plans with children and teenagers. The guide takes the reader through the process, including core and supplementary activities that lead to the co-creation of a cohesive plan. It is intended for use by anyone who seeks to integrate youth voice as part of their work in placemaking/community development.
Who and where?
A Place in Childhood (APiC)
with: Aberdeen for A Fairer World, NESCAN Hub and Aberdeenshire Council Aberdeen, Scotland
Features and Principles highlighted
- A place for all ages (Feature)
- partnership and advocacy (Principle for success)
- empowered communities (Principle for success)
The challenge
Communities across Scotland are experiencing significant challenges relating to climate change, declining youth mental health and the cost-of-living crisis. Plans to address and respond to these challenges in an equitable and sustainable way are often considered part of a ‘just transition’ – the need to meet climate goals by ensuring the whole of society – all communities, all social groups, all ages – are brought along in the pivot to a net-zero future.
The challenge however is that when local and place plans are made, the voices of children and young people are often missing or included in tokenistic ways. Despite policies promoting youth participation, there is a gap between policy and practice. Barriers include limited opportunities for meaningful involvement, adult-dominated planning and a lack of understanding of young people’s perspectives. Consequently, young people feel disempowered, and their views are frequently overlooked in community planning and development.
The solution
To ensure that the voices of children and young people are heard by adults in communities making local and place plans, APiC and their project partners undertook several sessions of meaningful engagement in schools across Aberdeen.
The project consisted of two phases. Phase one involved 90-minute visits to three Aberdeen City schools to review and update plans from early 2023. Phase two included a full-day session in each participating Aberdeenshire school followed by a half-day and a Showcase Event for each school cluster.
During phase two, for most of the schools, the initial session consisted of students taking the facilitators on a tour of their local area, showing them both the places that they see as good or important to them, as well as areas where improvements are needed. Throughout the tour the children took photos and the adults took notes, after which these insights and other relevant experiences of the area were put together on a shared map, identifying priorities for change based on the children’s experiences of their places.
In the second part of the session, students imagined a scenario where their local area had become separated from the rest of Scotland to create an ‘Our Island’ map. This was used to ask the children to expand on their immediate priorities imagining that their place was suddenly cut off from all it’s surroundings. How can everyone survive and thrive?
The themes that the children discussed were then used to create the basis for project planning on the second day when the pupils got into groups based on the proposed project that motivated them the most. By the end of the session, each school had produced 3-5 initial project plans along with corresponding actions that can be carried out locally. These project plans were then shared with the rest of the school for feedback using methods like surveys, assemblies and class discussions.
Once these engagement sessions were complete, 4 to 8 representatives from each school attended a Showcase Event to put forward their plans to each other and with adult participants in a world café style event. Showcase Events help to get the children and young people’s ideas out to a broader audience who might be able to support them to make change happen. It’s also an opportunity to create a child-friendly environment that adults are then invited in to, which switches up the
usual power dynamic. Young participants can gain huge confidence from this approach and start to understand more and more about how change can happen. They also appreciate understanding where and why it can’t happen, as often this knowledge is concealed from children and young people which can leave them feeling confused or annoyed. It also supports the creation of a project legacy, whereby solid actions and considerations are taken forward and what has and has not happened can be communicated back to young participants.
If we choose not to engage children and young people in their local places, we turn a blind eye to the ways local living environments shape childhood in ways we may or may not intend, and we shut down our own access to key information on how spaces and places we live and work in could be better.
Co-creating Local Neighbourhood Plans with Children and Young People. A ‘How To’ Guide
Key lessons
- A place for all ages (Feature)
The experiences of children and young people in their local areas is something that should be thought about in planning and decision-making processes to ensure that we are creating places that are suitable for all ages. Children’s experiences often differ from those of adults, as they tend to rely more on their local areas. Therefore, it is vital seek out and listen to their voices and to consider their needs and point of view, especially as it may differ from those of adults.
- Partnership and advocacy (Principle for success)
When thinking of creating local place plans using principles like the 20-minute neighbourhood, the ongoing and authentic involvement of young people is necessary to ensure their needs and priorities are considered. This means not only inviting their input but ensuring that their input is valued and acted upon. Sustained engagement helps build trust and ensures that young people’s perspectives are continuously integrated into policies and initiatives, as they too are a part of their community. School partnerships, workshops and site visits are some of the meaningful ways that professionals can engage with children and young people and ensure that they are properly and accurately advocating for their needs.
- Empowered communities (Principle for success)
Identifying and addressing the barriers that prevent young people from participating in decision-making is vital. Removing these obstacles, such as gaps between policy and practice as well as limited opportunities for engagement, ensure that all young people have the opportunity to contribute. This can empower communities as it promotes the message that all voices matter, whether young, old or somewhere in between.
What next?
The ideas and issues put forward by the children and young people in each participating school, with the broader consensus of the school population, are well thought out. While some will be easier to achieve than others, all are grounded in real world possibilities.
Project partners are now looking at ways these plans can be taken forward. Part of this is young participants joining a wider community climate assembly for their towns in Banff & Macduff and Huntly. Another part is all the partners looking at ways to integrate the pupil’s ambitions into educational plans.
Finally, the team is making links between existing work and new work that could happen through additional funding applications and extensions of funding for climate action in North East Scotland. Sustaining youth involvement and supporting them into leadership is part of the wider ambition, and all stakeholder involved are keen to keep this going.
With thanks to Dr Jenny Wood and Anna Gaffney (A Place in Childhood)
For more information, please see:
Publications – A Place in Childhood
Young People’s Just Transition Plans for Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City
