The World Urban Pavilion in Regent Park (Pavilion), a collaborative initiative between the Urban Economy Forum and UN-Habitat with support from the Government of Canada, is establishing the Kids Awareness on Urban SDGs program.

To support the development of this program, the Urban Economy Forum (UEF) is partnering with archiKID and World Urban Campaign. This partnership aims to build a global community to explore opportunities and share knowledge and innovations for educating children and youth and raise awareness among them on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the emphasis on the urban SDG. In this context, we are delighted to invite you to collaborate and join us in the preparatory meeting on: Thursday, February 10th, 2022, 10am – 12pm (Toronto Time).

This session will bring together a network of organizations led by and working on children and youth and will leverage our collective capacities and share our insights to support the development of this program.

World Urban Pavilion in Regent Park (The Pavilion)

The Pavilion is a global knowledge exchange hub for sustainable urban development and developing wise and innovative practices for achieving the SDGs, and in particular SDG 11 – make cities and human settlements safe, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable. This program will enable young change-makers to showcase for decision makers the ways they are supporting the global goals, and to inspire and mobilize others to take action. The Kids Awareness on Urban SDGs is part of the Pavilion’s flagship program, Canada: Pioneer of Urban SDGs, which will bring together all sectors of the Canadian society, creating a shared agenda to move toward urban prosperity and the reduction of poverty and inequality with a view to achieving the SDGs.

The Kids Awareness of Urban SDGs

The Kids Awareness of Urban SDGs program will work with its partners and create a new model to involve, educate, and engage youth that emphasizes the importance of global cohesion and collaboration. At its heart, this program is about building more awareness to start key conversations with the kids to educate them about the contemporary situation and SDGs, and what they can do to contribute to this global agenda. It is extremely important to raise the awareness of children on these important topics but by being careful to avoid delivering the wrong message and providing room for the child to be shaped as an individual.

This program will communicate to the kids about the different components of life through the lens of cities and urbanization. It will work with its partners to expand the knowledge and perspective that is shared with kids to provide a robust learning experience.

A fundamental educational concept of this program is moving away from this notion of competition. The program will emphasize the value of collaboration and considering the long-term future outlook of our societies.

Some of the key questions to be explored include:

- Examining cities, social life, how we live in the cities.

- Why it’s important to pay attention to people and society as a whole.

- how to increase the level of inclusion and the concept of equality and equity.

- Cultural, social, and economic dimensions of urbanization.

- Demographics and role of cities for the globe and sustainability.

- how to make cities better and more inclusive places to live.

The program will introduce key components of urban life and how one can contribute to leading a fundamental lifestyle transformation. Kids are the leaders of tomorrow and our future, providing leadership and life skills will contribute to creating the next generation of sustainability leaders that are forward thinking, inclusive, progressive, collaborative, and consider the ecological limits of our world. The program will create global cohesion by providing opportunities for kid-to-kid interaction with different parts of the world and contribute to worldly awareness and its limits by increasing the awareness of kids and families.

The program will also provide opportunities to create pilot projects and programs in Canada which will be showcased and demonstrated to the world through the World Urban Pavilion. This is a platform to foster international cooperation and contribute to encourage other countries, cities, and families to learn about and participate in a fundamental urban transformation.

Our approach is that our educational practices must be changed. There are a lot of important and key components that need to be conveyed to kids as they will need to be informed with a realistic picture about life. As we talk about a fundamental lifestyle transformation, kids should be recognized, as leaders and implementors of change, to achieve this transformation.

Agenda

Moderator: Alex Venuto, Chief Strategy Officer, Urban Economy Forum

10:00am – 10:15 am Introduction to WUP and Kids Awareness on Urban SDGs Program

- Anantha Krishnan, Secretary General, Urban Economy Forum

- Dyfed Aubrey, Subprogramme Coordinator, Enhanced Shared Prosperity of Cities and Regions, UN-Habitat, Nairobi, Kenya

- Leila Sadri, Executive and Communications Director, archiKID

10:15 am – 10:25 am ENTER CONNECTED FUTURES

- Hooman Talebi, Academic & Creative Director, archiKID

- Pantea Eslami, Founder & Managing Director, archiKID

10:25am – 12:30pm Discussions and Input from speakers (3 minutes per speaker)

- Julie Ward, Former British Member of the European Parliament & Co‐Chair of the World Urban Pavilion in Regent Park Steering Committee

- Douglas Ragan, Programme Management Officer, UN‐HABITAT

- Jose Etcheverry, Board Member of Governors, York University

- Lisa Wolff, Director, Policy and Education, UNICEF Canada

- Maggie Hall, Community Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility Specialist, Tridel

- Ibrahim Afrah, Community Leader, Regent Park Community

- Sharmaarke Abdullahi, Programme Management Officer, (O.i.C) Donor Relations & Strategic Resource Partnerships, ERSKI, UN-Habitat, Nairobi, Kenya

- Jesse Denison, Assistant Head of Preschool and Lower school, Bayview Glen Independent School & Michelle Yarndley, Director of Global Education, Bayview Glen Independent School

- Elena Karpilova, Head of the Architectural Thinking School for Children, Belarus

- Matthew Norris, President, Urban Native Youth Association

- Ilana Altman, Co‐Executive Director, The Bentway

- Fatima Saya, Manager, Social Impact, The Daniels Corporation

- Cathy Cook, Southern First Nations Network of Care

- Jason Kandankery, Centrally Assigned Principal, System Leadership and Equity, Toronto District School Board

- Ryan Painter, Board Chair, Greater Victoria School District

- Isabelle LeVert-Chiasson, Program Officer, Education, National ASPnet Coordinator, Canadian Commission for UNESCO

- Katrina Ostapchuk, Program Manager, Global Child, & Dr. Ziba Vaghri, the Director of GlobalChild

- Josi Leideritz, Executive Director, BYTE - Empowering Youth Society

- Melanie Redman, President & CEO, A Way Home Canada

- Conner Lowes, President, Youth in Care Canada

- Marisa Moher, Executive Director, YouTurn Youth Support Services

- S. M. Shaikat, Executive Director, SERAC‐Bangladesh

- Victoria Thornton, Chair, Thornton Education Trust

- Zoe Fortin, Executive Director, Play:groundNYC

- Negar Farajiani, Artist and Curator, Tehran Monoxide

- Danielle Ungara, Manager representing the Child Welfare Immigration Centre of Excellence, Peel Children's Aid Society

- Janet Bojti, Founder, You Mental Health Canada

- Dr. Andrews Peters, Founding Partner, Rising Stars, Youth Awareness and Empowerment

- Celine Bernhardt‐Lanier, CEO, Log Off Movement

- Amanda Gianniny, Teacher, The American International School, Vienna

- Prof. Dr. Ing. Angela Million, Director & Action Speaker, SMUS

- Eugene Quinn, Urbanist and DJ, Whoosh

- Samad Khatibi, Co‐founder and CEO, Bahamzi

- Kelly Logan, Manager ‐ Program Design Team, Scouts Canada

- Destin Bujang, Local Toronto Coordinator, Founder of Black Creek Youth Initiative, Equitas

- Taylor Morton, Program Officer, Equitas