About this toolkit and how you can use it
What is this toolkit?
As more cities involve young people in the design and delivery of research to inform decisions impacting their urban democracy and communities, we hope this toolkit can support that work. The aim is to inspire and support you on your journey to running a 'Co-Creating Our City' project.
This toolkit brings together learnings from two 'Co-Creating Our City' projects, one in the US city of Charlotte, NC, and one in Düsseldorf, Germany. It details the project process and steps, shares good practices, and provides you with concrete resources, tips on how to overcome challenges, practical learnings, and checklists.
Who is this toolkit for?
The toolkit is for city staff, youth engagement practitioners, youth workers, local community organizations, and researchers who want to involve young people and local decision-makers in a co-created research project to include youth voices and increase youth engagement in local communities.
How can this toolkit be used?
You can use this toolkit to start thinking about your own 'Co-Creating Our City' project in your city or community. You can move in and out of modules to find advice on the benefits and challenges of co-creation projects and on how to set up your own 'Co-Creating Our City' project. You can also use the resources and toolkit as a guide alongside your own 'Co-Creating Our City' project. You can also use the toolkit's resources to deepen an existing youth engagement research project in your city or community.
What is in the toolkit?
The toolkit has five modules:
- Making the case for 'Co-Creating Our City'
- Setting up your own 'Co-Creating Our City' project
- Bringing young people and city leaders together
- Doing participatory research with young people and city leaders
- Achieving impact with your findings and outputs
Contact us
Contact us with questions or to let us know of your 'Co-Creating Our City' project at citiescomms@gmfus.org
Case study: 'Co-Creating Our City' in Charlotte and Düsseldorf
In June 2024, two pilot cities, Charlotte, North Carolina (US), and Düsseldorf, Germany, launched yearlong 'Co-Creating Our City' projects to address the mismatch between opportunities for youth engagement offered in their cities and what young people seek as opportunities to engage with city administration.
Using a participatory research approach called Citizen Science, young people aged 14 to 24, city staff, and local politicians joined forces to create a research question and conduct primary research exploring the needs and opportunities for youth engagement in their cities. Based on the findings of six months of research, the groups made recommendations for tangible solutions answering their research questions. Each project offered ideas on how to create vibrant communities with more and better opportunities for youth engagement. Co-researchers concluded the project with a presentation of findings to their communities and city leaders in summer 2025.
As part of the pilot project, the youth co-researchers from Düsseldorf also flew to Charlotte to work with US-based youth co-researchers on solutions for next-level youth engagement in cities and to bring together learnings from the projects for this toolkit.
Acknowledgements: We thank The Gambrell Foundation for their thought leadership and generous support of the two pilot projects. We thank the members of staff at the City of Charlotte, Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf, and Jugendring Düsseldorf for their support of and enthusiastic interaction with this project.