Bringing young people and city leaders together

The key to successful 'Co-Creating Our City' projects is to meaningfully connect young people and decision-makers in a collaborative research process. The goal is to understand and overcome the mismatch between demands and opportunities for youth engagement through participatory research, mutual exchange, and jointly developed solutions for youth engagement.

We don't really typically get to connect with city officials as much. I think having initiatives like 'Co-Creating Our City' will bridge that gap and allow us to better understand the government and also for them to understand like what we might like.

Megha Mittal

Citizen Scientist, Charlotte

Recruiting committed co-researchers and keeping them motivated is crucial for the success of your 'Co-Creating Our City' project. This chapter gives practical tips on bringing young people and city leaders together as co-researchers in a meaningful way and how to overcome common challenges around collaboration and motivation that can arise in the process.