Why do we need projects like 'Co-Creating Our City'?
Many cities and municipalities recognize the importance of involving young people in community development and local governance. City leaders and local decision-makers benefit from insights gathered through structured dialogue with young people. Engaging young people's voices ensures that city governance is inclusive and sustainable, benefiting not just young people but the entire community.
However, despite these intentions, young people and city decision-makers can miss out on opportunities to meaningfully exchange ideas ―especially young people who are underrepresented, at risk, or may not yet have engaged with existing offerings. In many cities, there is a mismatch between the offered opportunities for exchange and what young people seek as engagement to enact their ideas about vibrant communities.
Young people want to contribute meaningfully to civic life if given the opportunity, but they can lack incentives and suitable pathways to do so. Cities, on the other hand, can lack efficient ways to engage in productive exchange with young residents. Traditional youth participation mechanisms (e.g., youth councils) can be experienced as tokenistic or disconnected from real decision-making.
There is definitely a disconnect between the youth and government and I didn't realize how important this program really was until I was actually in it, and I was speaking with leaders and understood that there's a big disconnect between us.
Jessica Akonga
Citizen Scientist, Charlotte
We often compartmentalize our interactions with youth in government. People think of, like, youth protesting or they think of youth doing a program, or an internship. But we rarely really find ways to engage with what their thoughts are, and their opinions are, which is odd, because when we think about city plans, we usually plan out 15, 20 years. Somebody who is 16 now, that is who we are planning for in the future. So not having them involved in that process, I think we're really missing out on really good ideas.
Alexis Gordon
City of Charlotte
Read more: Youth engagement in communities
On the lack of youth engagement and youth's invisibility in local decision-making:
Grant, H. (2025). Why aren't young people interested in local government? Local Government Information Unit.
On the barriers youth face to finding space and voice in local democracy:
Walther, A., Batsleer, J., Loncle, P., & Pohl, A. (2020). Young people and the struggle for participation: Contested practices, power and pedagogies in public spaces. Routledge.
On the barriers to engagement among urban youth in London, Belfast, and Dublin as reported by policymakers, public officials, and youth work practitioners:
Brady, B., Chaskin, R.J., & McGregor, C. (2020). Promoting civic and political engagement among marginalized urban youth in three cities: Strategies and challenges. Children and Youth Services Review, 116, 105184.
On the mismatch between policymakers' views and young people's everyday participation in local democracy:
Vromen, A., & Collin, P. (2010). Everyday youth participation? Contrasting views from Australian policymakers and young people. Young: Nordic Journal of Youth Research, 18 (1), 97–112.
On the democratic potential of youth-adult partnerships in local governance:
Booth, R. B., Guzman, P., & Suzuki, S. (2023). How effective youth-adult partnerships can grow voters. Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, Tufts University.
On the importance of informal, localised ways of engaging with local democracy for young people:
Harris, A., & Wyn, J. (2009). Young People's Politics and the Micro-territories of the Local. Australian Journal of Political Science, 44(2), 327–344.
On the need for new ways of including young people that are genuinely inclusive and share real power:
Harada, A. (2021). How to involve a diverse group of young people in local government decision making: A case study of Danish youth councils. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 53(5), 820–836.
On the support required for youth participation to influence local decision-making:
Harsant, J. (2025). A Critical Inquiry into Young People's Participation and its Impact within Local Government Decision-Making (Doctoral dissertation). The University of Huddersfield.
On the importance of youth engagement for democratic renewal in the United States:
Hart, D., & Youniss, J. (2018). Renewing democracy in young America. Oxford University Press.
On the meaning of local communities as meaningful arenas for youth engagement:
Pitti, I. (2015). Re-discovering the local: youth engagement. Open Citizenship, 5(2), 2435.
On platforms and trust needed for youth to shape local policy:
Sloam, J., & Henn, M. (2025). How young people can shape environmental policy in urban spaces. Policy & Politics, 53(1), 65–86.
On youth engagement in rural—not urban—communities:
Suppers, J. (2024). Young people's citizenship activities at and beyond school–exploring a new theoretical framework with empirical data from a rural community in Germany. Journal of Youth Studies, 27(3), 374–395.
On the challenges of tokenism, exclusion, and mistrust in youth engagement and how to address these:
Andersson, E. (2022). Three major challenges in young people's political participation and a pragmatic way forward. In Z. Bečević & B. Andersson (Eds.), Youth Participation and Learning: Critical Perspectives on Citizenship Practices in Europe (pp. 17-35). Springer International Publishing.
On ideas for radical, community-based youth participation beyond traditional democratic structures:
Batsleer, J., Rowley, H., & Lüküslü, D. (2023). Young people, radical democracy and community development. Bristol University Press.
'Co-Creating Our City' can address gaps in local youth engagement
'Co-Creating Our City' projects are collaborative projects that use a Citizen Science approach to do research steered and conducted jointly by local decision-makers and young people with lived experience of the issue being studied. Based on their research, young people and local decision-makers develop concrete proposals reflecting what young people want to see in their communities and what is feasible and achievable. The Citizen Science approach includes the perspectives, needs, and informal knowledge of those with exclusive access to their communities.
'Co-Creating Our City' projects offer a way to meaningfully involve young people in decision-making, research design and delivery, and policymaking. The approach empowers the co-researchers, young people and decision-makers alike, to work together, to articulate their ideas of youth engagement and vibrant communities, and to use scientific research methods and engage in impactful discussions about these ideas (thereby addressing important objectives of scientific and democratic literacy), as well as to experience real-life political efficacy by promoting change in their cities.
At its core, co-creation and Citizen Science methods represent a paradigm shift: They challenge entrenched ideas about who holds legitimate knowledge and decision-making power, disrupting power imbalances that can exclude young people's voices. This brings young people's experiences and ideas to the forefront of local initiatives and ensures that young people are not just consulted but positioned as essential partners in the creation of more inclusive, responsive, and democratic cities.
| Traditional solutions | Co-created solutions |
|---|---|
| Created for young people | Created with young people and local decision-makers |
| Hierarchical way of working | Collaborative way of working |
| Adult expertise privileged | Multiple forms of expertise valued |
| Knowledge produced for decision-makers and expert audiences | Knowledge produced for practical application and shared with stakeholders |
Principles of 'Co-Creating Our City' projects
'Co-Creating Our City' projects actively involve members of the studied community and local decision-makers in the process of generating new knowledge about, or understanding of, the needs of their communities.
'Co-Creating Our City' projects answer a genuine question about how to improve engagement in local communities and seek to conduct high quality research to produce actionable and impactful findings.
'Co-Creating Our City' projects strive to involve young people and local decision-makers as co-researchers in as many aspects of the research process as possible.
Participants in 'Co-Creating Our City' projects, whether project leaders, young people, or adults, benefit from taking part and gaining new perspectives to help strengthen their understanding.
'Co-Creating Our City' projects take into consideration legal and ethical issues surrounding data protection, copyright, intellectual property, confidentiality, attribution, and the impact of any activities on communities.
'Co-Creating Our City' participants are adequately compensated and acknowledged in project results and publications. They are informed about the impact of their work and actively involved in sharing findings with stakeholders in their communities.
'Co-Creating Our City' projects are evaluated for their research, participant experience, and wider societal or policy impact.
Read more: Co-creation in cities and municipalities
Co-creation in local governance was first described in 1978 by economist Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University, who emphasized the importance of citizen involvement in the creation of knowledge and decision-making. Ostrom argued that when communities are actively involved in shaping the policies and services that affect them, outcomes are more responsive, equitable, and sustainable.
Co-creation projects can be intentionally designed to reflect what people truly want and need, leading to greater public engagement, more efficient use of resources, and improved public service delivery.
In a community project setting, the mutual sharing of power, experience, and expertise fosters stronger communication, trust, and unity among residents, ultimately strengthening democratic governance and collective ownership of local outcomes.
Banks, S., Hart, A., Pahl, K., & Ward, P. (2019). Co-producing research: A community development approach. Policy Press.
Greenhalgh, T., Jackson, C., Shaw, S., & Janamian, T. (2016). Achieving research impact through co-creation. BMJ Open, 6(2), 392–429.
Hickey, G., Richards, T., & Sheehy, J. (2018). Co-production from proposal to paper. Nature, 562(7725), 29–31.
Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the commons: The evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge University Press.
Torfing, J., & Ansell, C. (2021). Co-creation: the new kid on the block in public governance. Policy and Politics, 49(2), 211–230.