Engaging Children and Young People in Planning

Teresa Strachan was previously Senior Lecturer in Planning at the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape at Newcastle University, before retiring to concentrate on her engagement-focused writing. She is the founder of the student volunteer project ‘YES Planning,’ and previously worked as a planner in the public and private sectors and for the charity Planning Aid England. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Town Planning Institute.

Teresa Strachan discusses the new release

Involving young people in planning and placemaking is often given low priority in local policy and practice.  This may be due to a lack of knowledge of children's and young people's rights, an absence of inclusive processes, a lack of know how in how to deliver youth engagement activities or a combination of all three. 

I wrote this book to raise a wider awareness not only of the benefits of working with children and young people in planning, but also to highlight how youth engagement is inextricably linked to international law, planning theory and to the interpersonal skills that planners and other professionals seek to develop throughout their careers.

Through the use of case study projects and their component activities, the book demonstrates the reciprocal manner in which planning students and young people can enrichen each others experiences of the planning process and of the local planned environment.  It calls on planners to develop their youth engagement skills and to reflect on how they can start to make young people's voice more commonplace in their everyday practice.