Special features of Quebec’s Child Friendly City
accreditation program and its impact on
municipalities
Session 5: BIG SCALE Participation
MARC-ANDRÉ PLANTE
General Manager of the Carrefour action municipale et famille
www.camf.ca
Odense, Denmark
September 30, 2014
Quebec
Canada
-
Predominantly a
French-speaking
province
in
Canada
French is the mother tongue
of
79.7%
of
Quebec’s
population*
* Source: Statistics Canada
The “Carrefour action municipale
et famille” (CAMF)
•
Mission: Offer municipalities and regional county
municipalities in Quebec support and accompaniment
services to help them develop municipal family policies
and to assist them in the process to become “Agefriendly municipalities”.
•
Objective: Improve the quality of living environments
for families, children and the elderly in Quebec, in
collaboration with partners of the municipal realm, of
the Quebec government and of other networks who
work with the same clienteles.
The “Carrefour action municipale et
famille” (CAMF)
To support the members of 17 administrative regions, the
“Carrefour action municipale et famille” (CAMF) uses the
following strategies:
•
•
•
•
Promotion & awareness-raising
Training & accompaniment (annual seminar)
Research & development
Representing the network when dealing with government authorities
Info about the province of Quebec
Info about the CAMF
• 320 members in 550 municipalities
• Accompaniment of more than 250 municipalities
and regional county municipalities in the development
of municipal family policies
• 1135 municipalities
• Inhabited area of 116 910 square kilometres
• Population predominantly located in southern Quebec
• 53% of Quebecers live in cities with over 100,000
inhabitants
History of the Child Friendly City (CFC)
program in Quebec
•
Launched in Quebec in 2009 by the CAMF
•
It is the Quebec version of the Child Friendly Cities (CFC) international initiative
•
It was the first structured initiative in North America
•
The goal of the CFC program: encourage all levels of municipal government to
integrate children’s rights in their policies, rules and objectives, as well as in their
decision-making structure
•
The Government of Quebec and a foundation based on a public-private
partnership provide financial support
•
Over the past five years, 24 municipalities have received an accreditation
What determines if a municipality receives a
CFC accreditation?
The CFC program aims to recognize the history
and the intentions of municipalities as so far as
the importance given to children in the
elaboration of services, by means of its
municipal family policy (MFP)*.
* Over the past 25 years, close to 800 municipalities have set up a
local municipal family policy in which children were at the forefront of
preoccupations.
What are the objectives pursued by the
CAMF with regards to the CFC program?
•
Raise awareness amongst decision makers of the municipal realm and increase their
motivation to become a child friendly city
•
Support actions benefiting children that have already been undertaken, and improve
them
•
Promote youth participation in municipal affairs and encourage municipalities to
keep youth informed and listen to their opinions
•
Encourage the implementation of:
•
Policies, rules, projects and initiatives in favour of children
•
New lines of thinking with initiatives promoting the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
•
New ways of mobilizing resources
•
New types of partnerships involving children
In short, accreditation is the result of an independent analysis process.
The benefits and the positive spin-offs of a
CFC accreditation
There are many, but here a just a few:
• It raises awareness amongst the municipal council regarding issues related to children
• It results in an assessment of the interventions undertaken for the 0 to 17 years old
clientele
• It gives a municipality membership in the Quebec CFC network (members exchange good
practices and share a bank of initiatives for children)
• It helps raise new lines of thinking contributing to the global development of children in all
municipal services
• It gets more youth to participate in municipality projects and in decision making
• It contributes to slow down the exodus of youth and families from rural areas
Assessment of the CFC program
Important notes…
• Local administrations have cultures with deep roots and changes are hard to
make in view of the current state of public finances.
• Promoting children participation naturally implies involving parents for
children under the age of 8.
• Prioritizing a few elements from UNICEF’s 9 ambitions makes
acknowledgement of municipalities easier, to then be able to make them evolve.
• Networking between cities encourages sharing of innovative initiatives.
• Establishing a structured accreditation process is complex and takes time, but
the impact is more durable.
Pistes d’actions
Presentation of inspiring measures and
projects for youth, within the various
intervention spheres of a municipality in
Quebec (Canada).
Bank of inspiring
initiatives
The CFC program’s
website shares a lot of
inspiring actions!
www.amiedesenfants.ca
Promotion of children’s
rights:
Solidarity walk
for children’s
rights
The
walk
helps
raise
awareness
for
children’s
rights
amongst
the
population.
www.ensemblepourlesenfants.
org
Promotion of children’s
rights:
Children’s rights
circuit
20 signs displaying specific
children’s rights were set up
in front of organizations for
families, in order to reinforce
the importance of children’s
growth
within
the
community.
Children friendly
institutions:
“Friends of the
children”
certification
This certification acknowledges
institutions that take into
account the needs of families –
especially those with toddlers
aged 0 to 5 years old – in
terms of installations
and
services.
Recreational activities and
school success:
Croque-livres
network
Inspired by the “take a book, leave
a book” approach, Croque-livres is
a network for book sharing. It is
intended for children aged 0 to 12
years old.
Transportation:
Advice for the
bus!
A booklet providing solutions to
help families get around more
easily with children on the bus.
Transportation:
Taxi 12-17
Transportation service for
teenagers aged 12 to 17.
A healthy lifestyle:
Food at school:
actions that may
be undertaken by
municipalities
A guide presenting a few
alternatives for municipalities
wanting to improve the food
environment around schools.
Children participation:
Fresco paintings
In the Centre du Québec region, to
make the urban landscape of a
municipality more beautiful, fresco
paintings were created with the
help of local youth.
Conclusion
Child friendly cities are
now more visible than
ever
Thanks!