Shape was required to facilitate workshops in three because the council had previously struggled to engage young people in any meaningful way with regards to the planned new town.

Shape (centre for architecture and the built environment in the East of England) was brought in by South Cambridgeshire District Council to organise workshops in three schools to gauge the views of young people who might live or work in a proposed new town.

Young people were encouraged to talk about and visually represent the types of features and community facilities they would like to see in the new town. The workshops used a variety of methods to ensure that Shape had a rounded picture of the views of young people.

Shape facilitated a number of creative workshops with over 100 children from three schools. The workshops were designed using the following principles:

Shape also gave each child an evaluation form to gauge views on how the workshops had worked overall.

As a result of Shape’s workshops over 100 young people were consulted in a meaningful and creative way. As well as understanding more about the views of young people with regard to features and facilities the project evaluation findings also report that the young people learnt a lot from the workshops.

Because Shape brought in technical experts as well as using their own facilitators the views the young people gave were meaningful and focussed around pertinent issues such as green space, affordability and transport connectivity.

Young people (primary, secondary and young people not in education or training).

Overall – the use of experts in facilitating workshops was key to the success of the consultation exercise. The parts of the workshop outlined as key include:

Emma Bennett (Project Consultant)

/03/2006

case

Urban Policy > Transport and infrastructure

Services & amenities