Ottawa's Youth Friendly Community Initiative

Is Ottawa child and youth friendly?

The Ottawa Youth Friendly Community Initiative (OYFCI) is being led by a network of partner organizations to facilitate youth in the process of evaluating how youth friendly Ottawa is.The initiative has the following objectives:

1.    To define child and youth friendly from a youth perspective
2.    To determine what spaces and services in Ottawa are child and youth friendly, and which are not
3.    To outline findings and action steps for improvement

The network plans to engage youth throughout the City of Ottawa to map both the assets and deficits in youth friendly spaces and programs. 

Click HERE for more information about the project.

In year two of the planned three year project, we will continue to engage youth participants by inviting them to join the youth advisory who will help analyze the findings of the focus group discussions.  These results will help inform future action.  A submission will be made by December 1, 2010 to the Play Works Partnership Youth Friendly Community Recognition Program. We want Ottawa to be a community which makes an investment in youth play.

The Playworks Partnership in Ontario provides 16 criteria for youth friendliness including opportunities and funding for youth play, youth are celebrated and recognized, youth feel comfortable, and the community supports  youth volunteerism and leadership development.

Click HERE for more information on Playworks Partnership criteria.