Producing a child-friendly city map

Growing Up Boulder (GUB), a non-profit which elevates children’s voices to create a more child-friendly city in Boulder, Colorado, worked with nearly 1,000 children, parents and caregivers to co-create the country’s first printed child-friendly city map. The map's success has led to 5 printed editions, a permanent display downtown, and a circulation of 50,000 copies. GUB partnered with 42 stakeholder groups in Boulder, including city departments, non-profit organizations and schools, to design a bilingual map anchored in the values of diversity, inclusion, community engagement, collaboration and celebration. It features low-cost cultural, educational, and recreational activities and locations. Extensive outreach through in-person engagements and online surveys involved many young people and families, 52 per cent of whom were from marginalized communities. An iterative process collected feedback for 27 drafts of the map before 10,000 maps were printed in April 2019. In addition to the printed child-friendly city map, GUB created an online version of the child-friendly map and an online teen-friendly city map. The maps are sponsored by a variety of organizations, ranging from local foundations to area businesses to non-profits. The free, bilingual, printed map is sent home yearly with students in the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) public elementary schools and preschools before summer vacation, distributed to non-profit map partners, and made available in public spaces throughout the city. Based on the positive responses of children, parents, city staff, community organizations, the tourism office, and academia, the map tapped an unmet need.