My City Too – Young Londoners' Campaign

My City Too'A lot of adults don't trust young people. They are suspicious of us and they feel threatened by groups of us hanging out together. I want to be free of those prejudices, and this project is one way to start changing people's opinion.'

Glen (aged 18)

Young people are our future. Yet research shows that many of them feel that they have little or no influence in decisions about their city. Young people must be fully involved in placemaking and policy-making if they are going to value, respect and take ownership of the spaces and places around them.

My City Too is a groundbreaking city-wide programme created by Open-City to enable young people to campaign and voice their ideas, aspirations and solutions for the future of London. My City Too places young people at the heart of built environment policy and inspires them to take an active role in London's future development.

Shopped Out workshop - My City TooSince its launch in 2007, over 3000 young Londoners aged 12 – 19  have come together to develop and progress the campaign, developing a set of unique methods that can be used to involve young people in the design and creation of London's urban environment.

Achievements and activity so far includes:

  • the publication of a teenagers’ manifesto for better places in the capital
  • Pan-London monthly forums gathering 35 ambassadors from 18 boroughs
  • Intergenerational workshops bringing together young people with planning & youth councillors from across London to explore placemaking solutions and ideas that can be applied to local and regional policy
  • Online surveys of the views and ideas of over 1000 young people across 25 London boroughs;
    local community projects
  • An extensive survey of local action research projects in Southwark, Newham, Greenwich, Camden and Islington exploring young people's ideas for retail spaces, public realm and other relevant issues such as anti-social behaviour
  • In 2008, a My City Too hustings for mayoral candidates at City Hall

My City Too Phase 2 (2010–12)

Open-City is actively seeking new partners, sponsors and supporters for Phase 2 of My City Too. Through Phase 1, local action research projects have proved to be a successful way to engage young people with their local and regional environment with positive and lasting benefits.

Phase 2 is being delivered in part through the Young Planners Programme, funded by the Department for Education, which pioneers a new and more sustainable approach to youth participation in shaping the environment: involving young people in decision-making processes around the built environment at local level to ensure that their boroughs and neighbourhoods continue to incorporate the needs of young people, but also involve young people in all stages of the development process.

This programme also has the potential to meet the particular needs of individual London boroughs, exploring how current or future spaces in that borough are, or will be, used by young people, and will identify what these young people’s priorities are. The Young Planners Programme is also able to develop new approaches to to youth-led consultation and peer-to-peer training workshops for young people ensuring that boroughs are able to develop a youth participation strategy that meets their own objectives and embeds young people in the process at a local neighbourhood level.

My City Too 2011 Activities

We’re always keen to get more young people involved in My City Too and ensure that as many young Londoners’ views are heard as possible in improving London's urban fabric. That’s why we’ve been working with the My City Too Ambassadors to produce a series of events and activities for the next 12 months. If you are a young person, someone working with young people, or working in planning and design, please do not hesitate to contact us to find out how to get involved.

Please contact Victoria Hinton, My City Too Coordinator, or call 020 7383 5722

My City Too Phase 1 supporters include:

Corporate partner: Tesco

Principal sponsor: Corus

Media and communications partners: Building, Property Week, RIBA Journal, FD Tamesis

Project sponsors: Abbey Charitable Trust, Arup, First Base, Make, Media Box, Southwark London

Exhibition sponsors: Development Securities, First Base, More London

My City Too Phase 2 supporters confirmed to date are:

City Bridge Trust

Young Planners is funded by:

Department for Education

Young Planners Champion Boroughs:

London Borough of Bexley

London Borough of Havering

 

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