We’ve developed the Child-Friendly City Action Plan to guide our journey towards becoming a child-friendly City. The Child-Friendly City Initiative (CFCI) is a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) global initiative to create places in which the voices, needs, priorities and rights of children, are an integral part of public policies, programs and decisions.

How community members have been involved

During the latter half of 2018, Council engaged with children and young people, their parents and service providers to identify the needs and concerns of children and young people across the City.

• 204 people participated in three separate online surveys targeting children and young people, parents and carers, and service providers.
• 167 children and young people participated in 19 focus groups held in 14 different suburbs.
• 10 services including police, education and health participated in interviews.
• A range of parents and carers who have children aged under two or have children with a disability attended meetings to speak on behalf of children who could not otherwise participate.

The full details of the community engagement process, the methodology undertaken by Council and key findings are outlined in the Child-Friendly CBCity Report 2019.

What's in the plan

We want Canterbury-Bankstown to be a child-friendly City.

As well as recognising the capabilities of children and young people, Council also has a responsibility to ensure they receive the support they need to develop to their maximum potential, within a healthy, safe, respectful and engaging environment.

The Child-Friendly City Action Plan provides recommendations in six categories of wellbeing, identified by UNICEF Australia, that will support better outcomes for children and young people in every community:

• Health;
• Safety;
• Education;
• Play and Leisure;
• Participation; and
• Belonging.

There are 65 actions under the six categories and 25 of these are deemed short term (up to 2 years), easily achieved or already in place and need to continue or expand. There are 26 actions considered long term ongoing projects that may already be in place or be a new proposal. The remaining 14 are medium term with a 2 to 4 year time frame. Download the adopted Action Plan to view the actions in detail.

Image Credit: The drawing featured above on this page was designed by Molly, age 8.

Exhibition Period

The Draft Child-Friendly City Action Plan was on exhibition from Thursday 24 October until 5pm Friday 22 November 2019.

Have your say

Thank you to all those who have provided their feedback. Submissions are now closed and under review with Council.

For more information

If you would like to discuss this Draft Action Plan, call Council’s Community Engagement Team on 9707 9771.

Draft Child-Friendly City Action Plan