"Cities for Children"

Together with the Lord Mayor of Stuttgart, Dr. Wolfgang Schuster, the Robert Bosch Stiftung founded the "Cities for Children" network to communicate with other European municipalities with child-friendly policies. "Cities for Children" aims to gather good practice examples from European municipalities and find the best projects and strategies for making city life easier for children and families.

European cities face two primary challenges: the changes resulting from globalization and demographic developments. They mean that our urban societies will become more and more international as a result of immigration and that the number of children from migrant backgrounds will continue to grow. At the same time, citizens are growing older, and the number of children in our cities overall has been declining for many years. Without children, however, our cities have no future. This is why we need to make urban societies more child-friendly and create conditions that make it easier for young people to decide to have children. To do so, we need comprehensive solutions that do justice to the many different life-situations in which individuals find themselves. One such solution is more support for families at the level of national politics. Above all, however, we must create urban environments that are friendly to children and families.

The European urban network "Cities for Children" will make child-friendliness the foundation of future urban development. Membership in the network helps cities improve their concepts and practices for child and family friendliness.

The Robert Bosch Stiftung supports the founding and development of the network after the pilot phase. The office in Stuttgart city hall (reporting to the city's spokesperson for children) performs coordination and information activities and the organisation of the annual conference.

To establish the "Cities for Children" network on the national and European level and link the programs of important European and international institutions with the efforts of the cities involved, other organizations will be included in the network. Due to the efforts of Lord Mayor Dr. Wolfgang Schuster, the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) is closely involved in the work of the network.

European Award of Excellence »City for Children«

Starting in 2009, the first European Award of Excellence "City for Children" will be awarded on the occasion of the Cities for Children Annual Conference. The Award will honour European cities for outstanding child-friendly projects.
Initiators are the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the City of Stuttgart, the European Network “Cities for Children”, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, as well as the Council of European Municipalities and Regions.