Dad playing with daughter at the playground

Child Friendly City initiative

The University of Liverpool is proud to be playing its part in helping the city of Liverpool on its journey towards international recognition as a UNICEF Child Friendly City.

The Child Friendly City (CFC) programme will embed a commitment to children’s rights and investment in children’s health, well-being and development in Liverpool. It offers a unique opportunity for maximising the impact of the University’s research on the local community.

A Child Friendly Liverpool will improve the life chances and health of all children in Liverpool. Liverpool was officially accepted onto the programme in May 2019. Links to the city’s progress can be found on the Child Friendly City programme webpage.

Parnters in Child Friendly City initiative

Liverpool has already progressed through the Child Friendly City ‘Discovery phase. This involved consulting with stakeholders from a range of different sectors across the city and with children and young people themselves about what issues should be prioritised.

Find out how partnerships can deliver real benefits for the city's youth in the video below.

University of Liverpool support for the Child Friendly City initiative

The University of Liverpool, as a world leader in many aspects of research relevant to children, is a key partner in Liverpool’s bid to become a child friendly city. Child Friendly Liverpool is an opportunity for the University to impact considerably on the health and wellbeing of current and future generations of children in Liverpool, whilst also encouraging cross-faculty collaboration, linking with the Starting Well, Living Well, Aging Well research theme.

The University is a key partner in Liverpool’s bid to become a child friendly city, leveraging its world-leading expertise in multiple areas of research across all three faculties, spanning health, medicine, psychology, history, law, politics, geography, social policy, sociology and criminology. We are also exploring opportunities to further develop collaborations in economics, architecture and civic design across the University.

Activity in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences has adopted Children and Childhood as one of its core research themes and has developed bespoke ethics guidance and training for research involving children.

We envisage the University acting not only as a research hub for informing local evidence-based policy, but also being at the forefront of supporting meaningful and direct engagement with children and young people, an area in which we already have expertise. The University’s Young Persons Advisory Group is already playing a key role in this respect; comprised of young people from a range of backgrounds from across the city, the advisory group provides feedback on the design and delivery of different research projects to optimise the relevance and impact of our work on children’s lives.

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