CYFC Tools

How Child and Youth Friendly is YOUR Community?

The Society for Children and Youth, with lots of help from many organizations and communities, has produced a community self-assessment tool. It comes in two parts:

Making Your Community More Child and Youth Friendly:

• Getting Started
• Planning for Action

The Assessment tool is based on 17* 'domains' that affect children's lives. These are:

• Housing
• Close to Home
• Parks and Open Space
• Family Support Services
• Childcare and Early Childhood Education
• Schools
• Neighbourhood Security and Policing
• Transportation
• Recreation and Community Services
• Organized Sports and Physical Recreation
• The Arts and Culture
• Health Services
• Social and Justice Services
• Local Businesses
• Workplaces
• Local Government
• The Media

*Look for information on a new domain - 'Cyberspace' - coming soon!

Communities can use this tool to do a general assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of their neighbourhood/s or zero in on one or two obvious areas of weakness.

Guiding Principles

Whatever process or topic is agreed upon, we recommend the following guiding principles to ensure a "child and youth friendly" outcome.

Parents and Families

• Do we respect and support parents in their role as primary caregivers for children and youth?
• Do we ensure that services are available to support families?

Access and Diversity

• Do all children and youth have access to the services that they need?
• Do we recognize the diversity of children and youth and address their unique needs in terms of age, ability, cultural background, economic status, gender, sexual orientation, and interests?

Respect and Dignity

• Do we respect children and youth and treat them with dignity?
• Do we foster a relationship of mutual respect between adults and children and youth?

Safety and Health

• Do we protect children and youth from danger and harm?
• Are the health and well-being of children and youth always top priorities in community decision-making?

Empowerment and Leadership

• Do we encourage young people to take leadership positions within the community?
• Do we empower children and youth and involve them in community decision-making?

Nature and Living Things

• Do we ensure that children and youth have strong linkages with the natural environment?

This Child and Youth Friendly Communities assessment tool comes in a 0 - 6 year old version.

Other Society for Children and Youth publications relevant to Child and Youth Friendly Communities (for example, Child Friendly Housing, How to Organize a Youth Recreation Forum, Making Space for Children: Re-thinking and Re-creating Children's Play Environments) can be found in Publications.