Cities bring diverse communities together. Yet, as urbanisation accelerates, rising numbers of people express a sense of disconnection, isolation and mental health challenges. Are these the types of places we want over 1 billion children to grow up in? Are we designing cities thoughtfully enough to foster real connection and wellbeing for all, and especially for young children and families?
For the past 10 years, the Van Leer Foundation has worked with cities worldwide through our Urban95 Programme to make them healthier, safer, and more vibrant for young children and families. Reflecting on our progress, we still see challenges in creating cities that ensure care can flourish in urban life.
Central to this vision is creating a supportive environment for people who provide care, whether for children, the elderly, or others who depend on them to live with dignity. In cities, this essential work is often invisible, taken for granted and absent from urban planning and decision-making.
We see an enormous opportunity to invest in rebuilding villages of care within our cities. To do this we need to intentionally consider the wellbeing of parents and caregivers, and understand the support, spaces and services that they need.
Amman, Jordan ~ Photo courtesy of Alexis Camejo
Centring the experience of caregivers in cities
Parents of young children in cities face challenging decisions – from balancing work and childcare, to finding affordable housing in safe neighbourhoods, to managing the daily pressures of navigating around the city to perform daily tasks, often under time constraints and with a baby or toddler in tow.
Recognising their needs and understanding their concerns opens clear pathways towards urban solutions that help parents to be more engaged with their children. Nowhere has the power and potential of such solutions been more clearly demonstrated than in the care blocks of Bogotá, Colombia.
A care block combines services such as continued education and training, childcare, laundry facilities, legal services and psychosocial counselling in one place in a neighbourhood. It enables caregivers to access services they need for their own wellbeing, while those they care for are looked after. In Colombia, most of these caregivers are women. Care blocks also provide care school for men, to encourage them to share responsibilities in households and communities.
Another initiative, the Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge, shows how simple interventions can make a difference for parents in cities across India – from a shady spot to stop for a rest while out running errands, to a safe place to take their children to play within a short walk from home.
In Irbid, Jordan, family hubs in urban parks offer programmes that focus on parental mental health. In their different ways, other cities as diverse as Addis Ababa, Boa Vista and Tel Aviv choose to prioritise children, families and pregnant women and caregivers. Such spaces create a visceral sense of care that can be felt by everyone.
Creating opportunities for human connection
But cities need to think more deeply. Care requires human connection, and this is critical infrastructure that many cities continue to underinvest in.
In our work we see that when parents feel supported – when they have a network they can rely on, and when they trust professionals from health care to education – they can start to build the villages they need to help them to care for their child. But many urban parents instead find themselves feeling isolated and unable to ask for help.
To strengthen human connections in urban environments, we need to work across sectors and disciplines. In the Netherlands, for example, the Solid Start programme has created new links between service providers – such as physicians, midwives, municipal officials, and social workers – to support new parents. It is founded on the belief that healthy parents are critical for healthy children.
In another Dutch city, Rotterdam, parents have taken the lead. Through the Mama’s Garden and Daddy’s Place initiatives, they have created welcoming environments for parents to gather and share their challenges, ask questions, and find support.
Care in cities begins with self-compassion
Just as care depends on human connection, human connection in turn rests on self-compassion. As socio-economic pressures continue to grow, it is all too easy to feel overwhelmed as a new parent in the city.
But if navigating the city feels different for parents, that is because parents themselves are different. Becoming a parent involves transformation not only in their daily routines, but in their bodies, brains, and emotions. New parents become more sensitive to noise and crowds, cautious of potential dangers, and aware of their dependence on others.
Urban parents need to hear that it is okay to find parenting difficult. They need to talk openly and loudly about the village of support they need. Only then will cities around the world make a priority of designing, planning, and delivering spaces and services that promote and celebrate care.
“In our work we see that when parents feel supported – when they have a network they can rely on, and when they trust professionals from health care to education – they can start to build the villages they need to help them to care for their child.”
~ Rushda Majeed, Chief Programme Officer, Van Leer Foundation
