°Âłó±đ˛Ô &˛Ô˛ú˛ő±č;(GUB) began in 2009, its goal was to empower young people to influence the local issues which affected their lives. For the past 12 years the program was a part of CU Boulder's  Community Engagement, Design and Research  (CEDaR) Center. Now one of the most successful child-friendly city initiatives in the world, it's being spun off as an independent nonprofit under the fiscal sponsorship of the Colorado Nonprofit Development Center.

“Growing Up Boulder will continue its deep partnership with CU Boulder as it evolves during its next phase," said â€ŻMara Mintzer, GUB's director. "It  grew from a strong foundation in academia, and the  students and faculty have been key to its success." 

The relationship between CEDaR and GUB is a model for how the university can develop, nurture and then spin off nonprofit activities, says Brian Muller, associate professor and CEDaR director.

“Growing Up Boulder began as a service-based research project and evolved into a program that is now more deeply embedded in the community than the university," Muller says. â€śIt will continue as a CEDaR affiliate with more flexibility to raise money and cultivate new relationships to expand its programs. Spinning it off strengthens GUB and benefits all its partners."

Over the years GUB grew to become one of the most successful child-friendly city initiatives in the world. Some of GUB's largest successes include Mintzer's  2018 TED Talk “," viewed 2.3 million times and translated into 21 languages;  GUB’s “child-friendly city map project,” which brought together more than 30 organizations and 700 young people to create the nation’s first printed, bilingual map designed by kids for kids; and the award-winning book, "Placemaking With Children and Youth: Participatory Practices for Planning Sustainable Communities," co-authored by GUB founders and faculty.  

University roots
In December 2008 Growing Up Boulder was conceived by David Driskell, director of community planning and sustainability for the city of Boulder, and Willem van Vliet, CU Boulder professor (emeritus) and CEDaR fellow, as an effort to make Boulder one of the nation’s first child-friendly cities, recognizing the rights and interests of children in local policy, law, programs and budgets as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Louise Chawla, CU Boulder professor (emerita) and CEDaR fellow, was also formative in GUB’s development. 

GUB formally launched in the spring of 2009 through an MOU between CU Boulder, the city of Boulder and the Boulder Valley School District, working in partnership with local nonprofits, businesses, and many participating children and youth. â€ŻIts overall goal was to bring about a culture change so that youth participation in local affairs would no longer be extraordinary, but mainstream and routine. GUB created programming that helped local youth provide critical input on matters of city planning, education, sustainability, social justice and human rights. It supported a new generation of civic leaders, who tangibly improve their communities by sharing recommendations for city and community design and decision-making. 

• Contributed to key city planning guidelines and policies, including seven master plans for open space and mountain parks, resilient cities, and transportation, and more. 

• Engaged more than 6,000 Boulder area kids on more than 100 city and community projects. Many program participants work with GUB for three months or more. 

• Upheld an internal standard to ensure that at least 50 percent of participating program children and youth are from historically marginalized groups. 

• Worked with more than 60 local and county partners to support hundreds of ideation sessions, after-school enrichments, and community engagement events. 

• Widely cited academic book chapters and journal articles. 

• Keynote addresses at national and international conferences. 

• Local, national, and international media coverage. 

• Training, lectures, and consulting sessions for many global partners, ranging from government staff and elected officials, young people, educators and academics. 

GUB has been a part of CEDaR and housed in the Program for Environmental Design for about 12 years, working in the context of an overall CEDaR philosophy that focuses on partnerships with city governments and community organizations; participatory action research;  interdisciplinary collaboration across campus; integrated research by undergraduates, graduate students and faculty; and engagement with low-income and minority populations.  

Joint CEDaR and GUB initiatives include the Hill Redevelopment Project, a three-year effort to build engagement among the varied voices in development policy on the Hill. During this project, GUB worked with a Flatirons Elementary  fourth-grade class to develop ideas to make the 11th Street Corridor a fun and safer place for people of all ages. In another joint CEDaR effort to develop innovative urban design for manufactured housing communities, GUB engaged with the Ponderosa Mobile Home Park community to encourage brainstorming with children and parents around the design of green spaces, playgrounds and safety, as well as adding new amenities to the park.     

In addition, CEDaR provided the GUB partnership with services including office space and fiscal, computer, human resources and communications support; staff oversight; and management of joint projects and MOUs.  

GUB's evolution into a new phase will be celebrated at a  on May 4.  

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In February 2021, Louise Chawla, CEDaR fellow and professor emerita in the Program in Environmental Design, was invited to give an opening speech for a weeklong Festival of Early Infancy (birth to 6 year olds) in the city of Strasbourg, France on the topic of “Connecting Children with Nature to Foster Wellbeing and a Caring Relationship with the Natural World.” During the hour-long discussion that followed, the city’s deputy mayor was interested in learning about Growing Up Boulder, a partnership between CEDaR, Boulder’s city government, and the Boulder Valley School District to engage children and youth in city planning and design. Growing Up Boulder projects include young children in elementary schools and preschools. The festival was organized by the Academy of Early Infancy and the Terra Symbiosis Foundation in Strasbourg, with the aim of inspiring the greening of child care, preschool and elementary school grounds and encouraging greater use of the city’s parks by early childhood institutions and families with young children.  

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"," which was released Sept. 17 by New Village Press, was written by three women with strong ties to CU Boulder's Community, Engagement Design and Research Center (CEDaR): CEDaR Fellow and CU Boulder Professor Emerita Louise Chawla, Mara Mintzer, program director for CEDaR's Growing Up Boulder program (GUB), a child- and youth-friendly city initiative, and lead author Victoria Derr, a former senior instructor in CU Boulder's Program in Environmental Design and former GUB co-coordinator, who now teaches at California State University, Monterey Bay. 

The book release will be followed by a Boulder Bookstore event on October 4, and Susan Glairon, CEDaR communications specialist, sat down for an interview with one of the book's authors, Louise Chawla, whose life work has centered on youth participation in the design and planning of their cities.

                         Louise Chawla

Your work has focused on giving kids a voice in city planning. Why were you involved in the formation of CEDaR, which involves people of all ages? 
There was always a strong tradition of community engagement at CU Boulder’s Children, Youth and Environments (CYE) Center, the predecessor for CEDaR. But CEDaR provides a chance to work together under one umbrella. It’s the big tent, a meeting place for those of us in the Program in Environmental Design (ENVD) who want to promote community engagement as well as share and integrate what we are doing.  

The CEDaR events where students share their research with city officials and the community are good examples of the types of sharing that CEDaR provides. These events include Growing Up Boulder, as well as studio classes working on different city projects, city officials and local residents. Community events like these raise the visibility of what we are doing within the program in ENVD, CU Boulder and the region at large. 

In addition, we hear again and again from students about how much they learn from real-world projects, and CEDaR provides those opportunities.  

Growing Up Boulder (GUB) is a CEDaR program. What does “growing up” mean? 
“Growing up” means gaining the freedom to move beyond the home into the community. It’s essential that cities and communities provide the resources that children need to develop their capabilities.  We need cities with people who know and love their city and invest in caring for it, and children and youth are an important part of that group. 
 
Where did the idea for Growing Up Boulder originate, and why is it important? 
The idea started with Growing Up in Cities, which has a mission of including children and youth in urban planning and design, and the Child Friendly Cities Initiative of UNICEF.  In the mid-1990s I revived Growing Up in Cities, (originally conceived by urban planner Kevin Lynch in the 1970s), at the same time UNICEF began the Child Friendly Cities Initiative. At that time, Growing Up in Cities was implemented in eight cities. When I last counted, approximately 50 cities worldwide had introduced Growing Up in Cities programs on some scale. GUB is a recent example.  

We want Boulder’s city officials and politicians to listen to young people in a serious way, so the young people feel that Boulder is their city, and they feel valued. GUB offers a means for children and teenagers to have that voice and help to create a vibrant, ecologically alive and socially welcoming city. GUB pre- and post- questionnaires include the question, “Do you believe people in the city will listen to you?” Mara (Mintzer), Growing Up Boulder’s program director, found that if adults listen to young people, afterwards they believe, "Yes. My ideas count."  

How is Boulder different than other cities who have implemented Growing Up in Cities?
Boulder has funded Growing Up Boulder since 2009, and it was the first city in the country to implement child and youth participation long term. It’s changing the culture of city decision making. Boulder recognizes that young people's ideas are often innovative, people-friendly and playful, and that implementing their ideas adds to the city’s character.   

Mara Mintzer

What: Louise Chawla and Mara Mintzer will speak about and sign their new book, "Placemaking with Children and Youth: Participatory Practices for Planning Sustainable Communities"

When: Oct. 4, 2018, 7:30 PM

Where: Boulder Bookstore, 1107 Pearl St., Boulder

Etc.: Vouchers to attend are $5, and are good for $5 off the author’s featured book or a purchase the day of the event. Vouchers can be purchased in advance at the store, over the phone, or at the door. Readers Guild Members can reserve seats for any in-store event.

"," was released Sept. 17, and is available for pre-order now via New Village Press, NYU Press, or Amazon.

This story was also updated and on the Child in the City website. Child in the City is dedicated to the rights and well being of children throughout Europe.

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The city of Boulder and CU Boulder partnered this fall to gather design ideas from Environmental Design (ENVD) students, neighborhood residents and elementary school students for revitalizing the University Hill area. The area has a rich history as a residential, shopping and music district, and over the last few years the city and local residents have been working toward developing office space, gathering spots, retail shops, hotels and parking areas.  

The results of work by more than 150 students will be displayed at an open house—free and open to the public—from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 15, at Flatirons Elementary School, which is located at 1150 7th St. in Boulder. are requested.

"Ongoing programs with CU Boulder student organizations have been instrumental in helping shift people’s perceptions of The Hill," said Sarah Wiebenson, Boulder's Hill community development coordinator. "This event brings the hard work and positive energy of the students to the community.”

The event marks the third design workshop organized through Colorado MetroLab, a partnership between CU Boulder and city governments in Colorado. As part of the effort, students interviewed residents and other area users and helped develop design and policy solutions to selected problems. They also helped engage residents and area users in a dialogue about the future of the area.

"MetroLab has been a strong partnership between Boulder and the university. It's been very effective in extending student work to the community and helping students understand community priorities and constraints," said Brian Muller, faculty director of , which organized the University Hill MetroLab project. "The students did great research over the fall, and at this event, they will present useful designs and concepts to help The Hill move forward."

Environmental Studies (ENVS) doctoral student Jenn Shelby said the students provided fresh perspectives and a neutral platform, which helped moved the creative process forward.

"This project gave students an opportunity to work in a real place, with real stakeholders, designing solutions for real challenges," said Shelby, who coordinated communication between the various classes and neighborhood groups. "So often students are given hypothetical scenarios, but this project gave them a chance to understand the complexity of real-world design problems in a familiar space."  

Participating faculty and staff included Beth Osnes and Nii Armah Sowah from the Department of Theatre & Dance, Jota Samper and Brian Muller from Environmental Design, Kira Pasquesi and Stephen Sommer from LEAD/CU Engage, Mara Mintzer and Cathy Hill from Growing Up Boulder/CEDaR and Jennifer Shelby from Environmental Studies.   

Here are some ways students were involved in the project:

Students from an Environmental Design class researched University Hill's history, interviewed residents and proposed designs showing how a one-block area could look if it became part of a creative district.

Students from the Performance for Community Engagement class interviewed business owners and translated their personal stories into performance art pieces that communicated the diversity, concerns and backgrounds of businesses owners.  

A Growing Up Boulder project, including fourth graders from Flatirons Elementary, elderly residents and ENVD undergraduate students, evaluated how to make a commercial street near their school and senior residential facility more environmentally friendly, artistic, fun, safe and attractive for pedestrians.

Environmental Studies master’s students conducted technical studies of issues such as parking rules, a neighborhood EcoPass program and opportunities for a craft fair.

Students from a CU Engage Leadership class assessed the history of community engagement on The Hill.

Students from a GIS/Smart Cities class evaluated planning, design and environmental conditions on The Hill.

This project is funded in part through a CU Boulder Outreach Award.

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