30 Years of the Project: 1991 – 2021
Believing in chance sometimes pays off: while in Rome on 27 May 1991 Parliament ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Children and Adolescents, in Fano "The city of girls and boys" was born.
The project created by Francesco Tonucci has a precise political intent: the protagonism of children in the government of the city. Making the child a parameter of change implies a reversal of perspective for all the social actors involved, first of all the mayors and local administrators.
Several Italian cities have joined the project over the past 30 years, building an international network with Latin America, Spain and other countries. During this time, the Network's commitment to children's participation and the urgency of recovering public spaces for free play have been translated into proposals such as "The Children's Council", "We go to school alone” and "Participatory planning”.
The International Laboratory thought that the best way to celebrate the anniversary of the Project is to create a series of activities and initiatives to share with all those who over the past 30 years have dedicated themselves to promoting child participation within their cities, making them child-friendly.
A first initiative was to reconstruct, from different perspectives and worlds, the experiences of the various cities by directly involving the protagonists who made the history of our Project - politicians, academics, militants and others.
The testimonies received, which answered the question "What did the City of girls and boys project mean to me?", allowed us to create a collection, which we introduce with the Letter (the letter in full version and translated into Italian was published in Francesco Tonucci's book "If children say Now Enough!") that Hermes Binner, Argentine politician and mayor of the city of Rosario, wrote to Francesco Tonucci in 2000.
It is a precious document because it collects the assessments of a mayor, who not only developed the project in his city, but spread it throughout his province, his country and the entire Latin American region.
Calendar of initiatives:
→ 24 May Collection of testimonies from the adult protagonists
→ 26 May Cnr press release "Children and pandemic"
→ 27 May Cnr WebTV "Child-friendly Cities Video"
→ 27 May Event poster Fano, city of girls and boys for 30 years
→ 27 May Video Event Fano has been the city of girls and boys for 30 years
