Making children's participation in neighbourhood settings relevant to the everyday lives of young people

Local environments are socially and developmentally important domains in children's everyday experiences. Yet so often young people's views and experiences of neighbourhood settings are characterised by conflict with adults, alienation from community life, environmental hazards or neglect and limited opportunities. The ideas presented in this paper are based on the authors' work with children in neighbourhoods in the UK and Australia as part of the æGrowing Up in Cities project. The authors argue that authentic participation involves inclusion - where the system changes to accommodate the participation and values of children, rather than integration where children participate in predefined ways in predefined structures.|The article gives a detailed description of a youth project in suburban Melbourne, including a list of the project's accomplishments and a discussion of the impact of participation on professionals, children and neighbourhoods and the ways in which communities can move towards genuine participation for young people