Items where Author is "McDonald, Laura"

6 of 7 films on the theme of 'Taking forward the Thriving Places Approach - Learning from Elsewhere'. Laura McDonald presents Child Friendly Cities and discusses two projects from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Gives background on Belfast Healthy Cities, part of World Health Organisation European Healthy Cities Network. Talks about engaging children to provide input into the development of the built environment, the benefits of child friendly environments from health, social and economic perspectives. Presents The Schools Project (West Belfast), gives the aims, work undertaken, and talks about how the evidence from events was presented to the Department of Social Development (DSD), part of the Northern Ireland Executive, which was then used in the Streets Ahead Project. Presents Kids Space Project, a collaborative approach to shared family play-enabling families to take ownership of areas in the City Centre. Discusses the main themes - Active Space, Free Space and Creative Space. Talks about how events were also used as consultative opportunities, appointing a Community Artist to help gather information which was fed back to the DSD. Discusses future opportunities, working with teenagers, engaging with areas of North Belfast to utilise unused space there, continuing to provide information to the DSD to inform regeneration initiatives and the work currently underway to gather information and develop a Child Friendly City Strategy for Belfast.