Supporting young people to change our world.

Children across Shetland’s North Isles and South End have co-created new Living Well Locally Plans—shaping priorities for play, transport, housing, sustainability and community wellbeing. Their ideas now provide a policy-ready roadmap for supporting children’s rights and thriving local places.

In an age of polycrisis and polarisation, children’s rights risk becoming rhetoric rather than reality. Participation isn’t risky — ignoring children and young people is. We must fund proven methods, scale what works, and ensure rights shape real-world action. The stakes — and opportunities — have never been clearer.

Discover how co-design with children and teenagers can unlock creative, site-specific insights at every RIBA stage. Our award-winning methods help architects and landscape architects create places that serve younger generations.

In Born to Play, Dr Jenny Wood argues that society systematically blocks teenagers from enacting their right to play—then blames them for acting out. It’s time we saw the problem for what it is: structural anti-social behaviour towards young people.

Discover how A Place in Childhood (APiC) and Shetland Islands Council are transforming community planning by centring the voices of children and teenagers in the Westside Plan 2025. This youth-led initiative empowers young people to co-create their local environments through experiential mapping, creative workshops, and inclusive dialogue.