built4kids

Built4kids is a resource developed by the NSW Commission for Children and Young People to help create built environments with and for children and young people. It can be used by local councils, government agencies, planners, schools, architects, developers and other professionals.

Built and natural environments impact on children and young people's well-being, including their physical and mental health. Like adults, kids want their environments to be safe, friendly and inclusive, with facilities that are flexible and easy to get to. 

Built4kids includes a set of child-friendly community indicators to help monitor and improve the built environment for kids, as well as case studies giving real life examples of how kids have contributed to developing their local built environment.

Built4kids can be used to plan and set strategic directions, develop design guidelines or assess development proposals. 

The complete guide can be downloaded from the following:

 http://www.kids.nsw.gov.au/uploads/documents/Built4Kids_complete.pdf

 The guide developed to reflect a view that  creating a child-friendly environment means creating an environment that supports:

1. Agency:

Having agency or power to take independent action leading to some control and capacity to act independently in everyday life.

The built environment can contribute to children’s experience of agency by:

• Enabling children to independently access a diverse range of community services and activities suitable for children of all ages, abilities and cultural backgrounds.
• Building the capacity for children to be healthy and achieve competence by engaging actively in their local community environment.

2. Safety and security:

Having a sense of safety and security to be able to engage fully with life and do the things that children and young people need to do.

 The built environment can contribute to children’s experience of safety and security by:

• Making community public places safer for children.
• Increasing the ability of children to feel secure and connected within their community.

3. Positive sense of self:

Having a positive sense of self, feeling you are a good person and being recognised as such by those around you.

The built environment can contribute to children’s experience of having a positive sense of self by:

• Creating spaces that offer children a sense of fun, welcome and support.
• Increasing opportunities for children to access green open spaces and natural areas for emotional restoration and enjoyment.

Below are links to a pdf for each section of the guide.

Section 1 - About this guide (5MB)
Section 2 - Child-friendly environments (2MB)
Section 3 - Questions to ask (3.5MB)
Section 4 - Involving children in decision-making (6MB)
Section 5 - Benefits and indicator frameworks (3.8MB)
Section 6 - Case studies (3MB)
Section 7 - Acknowledgements and appendix (1.5MB)

Some sections of the guide can be applied to many different types of  built environment design-based projects. For instance, the questions in Section 3 can be used in, or adapted to many contexts or situations.