What is Child Friendly Leeds
Our ambition
Our ambition is for Leeds to be the best city for all our children and young people to grow up in.
Our vision
Bringing together the whole city to make Leeds a happy and safe place for all children to enjoy growing up in, have fun and reach their full potential. Our aim is to work in partnership to improve outcomes for all our children, guided by the voices of children and young people.
Child Friendly Leeds (CFL) was launched by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in 2012 and is the thread that ties together all the work done in the city to create better outcomes for all children and young people.
CFL encourages everyone to work together to take action in their school, community, business or organisation to make Leeds a child friendly city. Our commitment to being the best city for children and young people is founded on the global movement of Child Friendly Cities initiated by UNICEF.
All of our work is focused around 1 vision, 5 outcomes of the Children and Young Peoples Plan and our 12 wishes developed in partnership with children and young people.
The Child Friendly Leeds 12 wishes external link were refreshed in 2022 and developed based on consultation data from over 80,000 children and young people in the city. The wishes are aspirational and provide a clear insight into their views on what will make Leeds a better city.
How do I get involved in Child Friendly Leeds
To keep up to date with the latest Child Friendly Leeds news, good practice from across the city and opportunities, subscribe to our blog external link and follow @childfriendly on social media. We encourage everyone working with children, young people and families to tag us in your posts to enable us to champion and promote how you are making a difference to the lives of children and young people in Leeds.
Businesses, voluntary sector organisations and community groups, public sector partners, learning settings and teams and services working with families also have the opportunity to identify a lead contact to join our Child Friendly Leeds ambassador network external link. Child Friendly Leeds Ambassadors receive regular newsletters and opportunities to work in partnership and support the work of different teams, services and projects working directly with families. Ambassadors will also receive invitations to workshops and events enabling them to network and make connections, further their understanding about priority issues for children and young people and work together to develop new and innovative approaches to tackle the big issues.
What has Child Friendly Leeds achieved so far
Some of our achievements are:
Putting the voice of the child at the heart of all we do through our voice and influence work finding out what young people's priorities are and acting on what they tell us via youth voice groups, projects, consultations and events.
Strengthening partnership working, increasing partners and ambassadors awareness of priority issues for children, young people and families in the city and working together to help improve outcomes.
Establishing a growing network of Child Friendly Leeds Ambassadors, who share their support, knowledge, expertise, resources and time to help improve the lives of children and young people in Leeds. This includes enrichment opportuni-ties and projects for looked after children and care leavers, activity days for foster families, donating prizes and sponsoring events.
Key highlights
Child Friendly Leeds Awards external link, planned by young people, the awards recognise the people, places and organisations that make a difference to families in Leeds.
Annual city centre children's festival Child Friendly Leeds Live on National Play Day.
Establishing Baby Week Leeds external link in partnership with health services and early years setting to raise awareness of this critical stage of child development and the importance of giving all children the best start.
Enrichment projects developed in partnership with Ambassadors.
What are we working on
The Child Friendly Leeds team play a central role in championing children and young people and their rights. The team lead on the coordination of Child Friendly Leeds wishes action plan and have five key work strands:
- Ambassadors - partnership work with ambassadors to connect and link them to projects, organisations and services and develop multi agency partnership projects to further contribute towards our outcomes in CYPP and 12 wishes.
- Communication - share child friendly news, good practice, raise awareness of opportunities and updates on the wishes via blogs, social media, website, films.
- Play - increase awareness of the importance and value of play, deliver play enabling grant programme, coordinate play streets and promote and develop playful spaces, places and opportunities across the city.
- Enrichment - the team coordinate offers including tickets and gifts donated by ambassadors to children and young people and families most in need and coordinate enrichment projects for vulnerable children and young people.
- Events - the team organise Child Friendly Leeds Awards and work with partners to deliver Babyweek and CFL live on national play day.
Key contacts and more information
Our key contacts are:
Councillor Fiona Venner, the Executive Member for Children and Families
Councillor Andrew Scopes, lead member for Child Friendly Leeds
Hannah Lamplugh, lead for Child Friendly Leeds team
You can contact the team on childfriendlyleeds@leeds.gov.uk
Find us online:
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