Local Organising Committee: Child in the City
Conference objective:
Child in the City is a global organisation dedicated to promoting the rights and wellbeing of children across the globe. The fourth Child in the City International Seminar brought together experts, policymakers, children’s professionals, university lecturers, researchers and city planners from all over the world to share their knowledge and research on child-friendly cities, with this year’s discussion point being ‘Child poverty in western cities.’
The event:
Experts and policymakers from the field of child services gathered in Leeds for the fourth Child in the City International Seminar in November. This forms as part of a bigger conversation at the International Child in the City World Conference, which is held biennially in a different city around the world.
This year’s Child in the City International Seminar, which was held at The Met Hotel in Leeds, created opportunities for academics, officials and policymakers from across Europe and beyond. The seminar involved the sharing of research, innovation and good practice from various disciplines and policies that affect the lives of children in towns and cities.
Each international seminar focuses on a particular theme to progress the advancement of child-friendly environments, communities and services within the public realm. Children’s professionals, play-workers, city planners, landscape architects and policymakers attended the conference in Leeds to discuss educational environments, urban segregation and marginalisation, as well as child poverty lessons learnt from two case study cities, Dortmund and Madrid.
Delegates were welcomed to the city with a cocktail reception at Leeds Art Gallery and a networking dinner at The Met Hotel, a Grade II listed building which was designed by Leeds architects, Harry Sutton Chorley and J.W. Connon, and opened in 1899. During the two-day conference, delegates had the opportunity to attend several field trips to visit community groups and local businesses from across the city that are dedicated to improving the quality of life for children living in Leeds. These included Getaway Girls which empower girls and young women by helping them develop new skills in supportive environments, Catch, which delivers youth volunteering opportunities in safe spaces, and Leeds Rhinos Foundation which harnesses the power of sport to make a positive impact on the lives of young people.
The conference also included a keynote speech from Gill Main, Associate Professor in Childhood Studies in the School of Education at the University of Leeds, which gave delegates an insight into the impacts child poverty has on children, families, communities and society as a whole, and how city-wide anti-poverty work can address this. Andy Lloyd, Head of Children’s Workforce Development in Leeds Children’s Services and Sue Rumbold, Chief Officer of Leeds Children’s Services also delivered an insightful session, offering an insight into the journey that the city of Leeds and the small town of Hoogeveen in the Netherlands have been on, after working closely together to become child-friendly areas.
Leeds’ inspiration to pursue its child-friendly city ambition came from the Child Friendly Cities work carried out by UNICEF, which was launched in 1996 to encourage cities to become more liveable places for children and young people, and guarantee their right to essential services by empowering them to have their voice heard and influence decisions being made that affect them. As part of the initiative, Child Friendly Leeds has established a growing network of ambassadors who make financial and in-kind contributions to improve the lives of children and young people in Leeds and has supported the Independent Visit scheme for ‘children looked after’ in Leeds. This has resulted in an increase of volunteers in the city, with over 50 schools in Leeds becoming accredited in the Investors in Pupils programme. The Leeds Youth Council has also developed a network of over 400 young people living in Leeds who are passionate about making a difference in the city.
Karen Murgatroyd, Head of International Relations at Leeds City Council commented: “We were thrilled to welcome the fourth Child in the City International Seminar to Leeds last November. The City is a hub for innovation, education and culture, which made The Met Hotel and Leeds Art Gallery ideal venues for the delegates to visit. It was wonderful to see experts from Leeds and across the globe come together to develop restorative research, practices and solutions that will continue to improve the safety and quality of life led by children in towns and cities across the world.”
