Urban95 Public Life Data Framework Guide

Introduction

About Urban95

If you could experience your city from 95 cm — the height of a 3-year-old — what would you change?

This is the core question Urban95 seeks to answer on behalf of the babies, toddlers and caregivers who rarely have a voice in city policy, planning or design.

By connecting social and spatial challenges, the goal of Urban95 is to encourage cities to create spaces where children can grow, learn, create, imagine and play across all neighbourhoods, reaching as many families as possible.

Urban95 is an initiative created by Van Leer Foundation to help city leaders, planners and urbanists understand how their work can influence child development. Van Leer Foundation supports cities to reframe their governance strategies, public policies, budget allocations, knowledge sharing and training with an early years lens.

Family-centred urban planning and design is not only about building more playgrounds. Urban95 takes an integrated approach that combines improving urban spaces and providing services. By working across sectors and thinking holistically – cities can create urban environments that welcome families and encourage the healthy development of young children and also support the wellbeing of parents and other caregivers.

Credit:VanLeerFoundation

About the Urban95 Public Life Data Framework

The Public Life Data Frameworkis a tool to support a sustained culture of public life data collection. More than ‘nice to have’, fostering a robust public life produces a ripple effect of tangible individual, neighborhood, and citywide benefits - setting a pathway towards long-term impact for public realm projects. This Frameworkintroduces the Urban95 Public Life Data process as a step-by-step guide to advance public life documentation and informed decision making as a strategic city driver.

The purpose of the Urban95 Public Life Frameworkis to:

➔ Guide urban practitioners and Urban95 partners in developing and designing family-friendly public spaces

➔ Outline the necessary steps within the public life data process to ensure that assessments are somewhat standardized and aligned with the broader objectives of promoting a family-friendly urban environment

➔ Promote the collection of clear and effective data and impact stories to communicate the significance of early childhood development planning across municipal departments, politicians, and decision-makers. This will support efforts to secure funding, influence policy, and demonstrate progress at various scales over time

➔ Offer tactics and real world case studies to help illustrate how we track, test, and evaluate public space

Print me! I am best used as a printed A2 poster.

Why we Care About Public Life

What is public life?

Public life is the activities and behaviors people engage in in public space, including the routine and mundane activities of everyday life such as commuting or running errands. A vibrant public life promotes health, makes our cities safer, can lead to more civic engagement, and connects people to their local communities.

The design of our cities and the public realm can shape public life, and understanding how these spaces invite (or do not invite) certain behaviors and activities will help inform policy and design projects.

Why collect public life data?

To improve places for tomorrow, it is essential to understand how people use and experience them today. Public life data creates a vital feedback loop, giving city practitioners the confidence to test major changes in public spaces, assess their impact, and fine-tune interventions, programs, or designs as needed.

Collecting this data fosters a culture of data-informed design and decision-making, enabling city agencies uncover hidden patterns, and create a more inclusive planning process. While traffic data often dominates planning decisions, public life data can enhance equity in cities by making people visible to decision-makers, providing a compelling case for change, generating excitement for projects, and winning over skeptics.

When we collect public life data we can answer crucial questions such as ‘Where are activity hotspots? Who is invisible in public? What’s popular and why? How does the city support or hinder people’s experiences?’

Credit:VanLeerFoundation

Considerations When Applying the Framework

This framework offers a structured approach to guide the development of projects and assess their progress within a relatively short timeframe.

However, fostering long-term change—particularly when it involves cross-departmental collaboration and capacity building—requires sustained effort. Depending on the specific context of your programs or initiatives, additional steps may be necessary to establish a more comprehensive assessment framework that can evaluate the impact of interventions over an extended period.

Rather than prescribing specific design solutions, this framework provides an approach, methodology and Public Life tools to inform the planning and evaluation of public spaces. While it is not an exhaustive resource, it outlines fundamental steps and principles to help you initiate a data-informed approach to shaping and improving public spaces.

Considerations when applying the Framework

Ownership

Cross-departmental collaboration, building local capacities and stewardship

Agility

Flexibility to adjust a project based on changing goals and stakeholder priorities

Policy

Documenting project learnings to influence family-friendly policy across sectors

Finance

Gaining buy-in reflected through human resources and financial contributions

Considerations for Applying the Framework

Conducting Public Life studies at the local site scale

When deciding on the scale of a Public Life study, think about how much activity within the public realm you need to capture to understand people’s use patterns and the activities they are engaged in on a particular site.

Using Public Life methods you can assess public life in a public space or you can evaluate a project’s performance at one site.You can also collect public life data across multiple sites which will allow for benchmarking and comparison of public life. Baseline studies and seasonal assessments conducted year over year can build long-term evidence of the shifts in behavior and if a set vision is being achieved.

Institutionalizing Public Life studies at the city-wide scale

City-scale Public Life studies reveal the pulse of different districts and how the public realm performs for people, indicating where investment is needed. On a greater level, city-wide studies can build evidence to support family-friendly policies, urban planning guidelines and service locations (to name a few) to be shared and implemented across sectors.

City-wide public life data can draw on a variety of observational and "big data" sources to answer questions like: How do families travel between neighborhoods? What are the primary destinations caregivers bring their children? Which streets promote independent movement or dependent movement of small children?

The cumulative effect of year over year cross-city evaluation supports reporting on the success of places and programs long-term across typologies and regional contexts. Evaluations at the city-wide and project site level can happen in parallel, and are tightly connected.

System

Community Site

Individual

Regional development or multi-city wider program

Wider town, neighborhood or city

Project site and surroundings

Children and their families

Considerations for Analyzing Public Life Data

When you have collected public life data, whether analog or digital, you need to analyze it. In order to visualize data it needs to be more than just numbers. We recommend entering your data into Excel or Google Sheets and creating charts and graphs to display the findings. If building a long-term approach to working with public life data, tools such as Tableau or Power BI can be a helpful ways to visualize data alongside other spatial or non-spatial datasets like mobility, pollution levels, health or housing.

Public life data analysis workflow

Either input analog data into a spreadsheet, or download digital public life data as a .csv file - a file format exported by the Public Life App. .csv files are compatible with spreadsheet applications like Excel or Google Sheets and geographic information systems like ArcGis or QGIS.

A preferred workflow uses a program called Tableau to combine, process, and analyze public life data from the app. We recommend Tableau because it integrates many of the features found in separate spreadsheet and mapping applications into a format that’s easy to share with others. However, using Tableau does require a subscription. Fortunately, you can also decipher, analyze, and visualize public life data using widely accessible digital tools. Such as ArcGis or QGIS which are free. This is not exhaustive, there are many tools out there for storing and analyzing data.

Storing public life data for long-term use and growth

➔ Adopt a consistent data format

➔ Create a centralized data repository and organize data by year, location, and/or project to make it easier to retrieve and compare

➔ Establish a routine for reviewing and cleaning data before analysis. Look for missing values, duplicate entries, or inconsistent formats

➔ Connect public life data with other long-term datasets, like census data, mobility reports, or air quality indexes, to create richer insights.

➔ Use tools like Tableau, Power BI, or Excel to create dashboards that automatically update as new data is added

Tips for handling data:

➔ Select the most compelling stories, but don’t cherry-pick findings

➔ Compare one variable at a time. If comparing two different locations, make sure you’re not comparing a weekday at one site to a weekend at another site

➔ Be honest with the data. Interpret, but don’t misrepresent

➔ Keep it simple! Put data stories together with photos and diagrams; this will resonate stronger with a variety of recipients

➔ Don’t worry about fancy analysis or visualization software, Excel works great

➔ Consider intervening factors. If pedestrian volumes are low in the evening, is the city not supporting nightlife or was it raining?

Public life data Excel file

Tableau data visualization

How to Use the Public Life Data Framework

A public life data approach is not always linear. Tailor a process based on your research question, where you already are in your efforts, your team’s capacity, and above all what you need at this stage of your project or program development - consider what is most useful now and start there!

Begin by assessing your current position on the Framework roadmap (linked on page 6), whether you’re working independently or with a team, and note any steps you may want to revisit or are already complete. Identify a process that works for you.

Redesign a busy retail street to encourage families to stay.

This process focuses on gathering a baseline of public life data to inform the a street redesign

This process focuses on alignment with cross-sectoral stakeholders, implementation, and case making to scale

Evaluate an event series to make informed decisions for future investment.

This process focuses on alignment with cross-sectoral stakeholders, implementation, and case making to scale

Measure Baseline Data Engage Stakeholders Test Pilot 1:1

Craft Impact Stories

Create a networkof safe school streets throughout the city.

Set a Shared Public Life Vision Engage Stakeholders

Define Constraints and Challenges Create an Evaluation Plan

Craft Impact stories Scale to new sites

Craft Impact stories Communicate and disseminate

Create an Evaluation Plan Collect public life data Analyze data

Final Design and Implementation

Measure, Test, Refine

Urban95 Public Life Data Framework

FrameworkChapters

Public life data can be used for different purposes. The framework highlights how public life can be in service of many vital steps throughout a project process.

Plan and Define

Define Constraints and Challenges

Identify a Site

Build a Coalition

Engage Stakeholders

Set a Shared Public Life Vision

Piloting for Change Measure, Test, Refine

Share and Scale

Create an Evaluation Plan to Study Public Life

Craft Impact Stories

Scale for Impact

Plan and Define

Define Constraints and Challenges

Define the Constraints

Before using public life data, define the constraints that public life data can help mitigate. For example, what site is most important for an intervention or when should we implement a project to capitalize on a change in usage due to an event or seasonal changes.

Then consider constraints that may block a project or program’s viability, implementation feasibility, or sustainability. Map constraints early to lower risks of unexpected challenges later on.

Constraints to consider when using public life data in a project:

➔ Budget: What funding is currently available, and do you need more? How can you prioritize a low-cost or cost-efficient intervention?

➔ Spatial: What are the physical limitations of the site, and how can we work with them and not against them?

➔ Regulations: What are the local laws, regulations and permits needed, and can you engage with authorities to ease permitting?

➔ Timeline: What are the major deadlines and milestones and how can the project timeline support them? Is there flexibility built into the plan to handle unexpected events?

Define the Challenges

Identify the key challenges children and their families face. Layer socio-demographic and health data with public life data and qualitative insights from focus groups and interviews to determine the core challenges you are able to address. For example, to understand how air pollution is impacting small children we layer spatial data such as air pollution, city wide traffic, and health with public life data of the routes and public spaces small children use most frequently.

Defining challenges ahead of the project will make it easier to develop a project vision and by extension public life data metrics.

Community-level challenges to consider:

➔ Health: What physical and mental health concerns (e.g., air quality, noise, stress, access to green space) are affecting young children and caregivers?

➔ Nutrition: Are people able to access healthy, affordable food?

➔ Play and development: Do children have sufficient opportunities for play, which is essential for their growth and development?

Average age 34

64% of households are families

➔ Social connection: Are there social bonds and support networks between local communities? Are people experiencing isolation? Sociodemographic Visualizations

Methods ● SpatialAnalysis ● Socio-Demographic Mapping

Social Mapping via local

and organizations

Spatial Analysis

Identify a Site

Site selection is critical for ensuring success and impact of a public life study. The goal is to choose a location where it is most helpful to collect data and set the stage for future projects.

Focus areas for site selection

➔

➔

➔

Purpose of site selection

Backed by big data, site selection ensures that chosen sites are useful for collecting public life data and for studying behaviors. This can align partners through a clear, data-supported vision of purpose and demonstrate why public life data is necessary. Stakeholders will see how the data supports their own goals.

Aligning insights with partners

This is an opportunity to align with partners and build a coalition around shared interests in addressing challenges. Use the public life vision, desired impacts, and neighborhood-level data from earlier stages to determine locations for data collection and potential future projects.

Criteria for site selection

Develop a clear selection criterion to prioritize data collection at impactful sites. Ask, “Which areas of the city can have the greatest impact in addressing public life challenges?”

Density: Where do people live?

Key destinations: Where do people visit today? Where might they go in the future?

Connectivity: How do people move? What modes of transportation are people using?

➔ Local opportunities: What are the challenges and opportunities around the site? Can they be understood through a Public Life study?

Study design and feasibility

The way in which you design the Public Life study will play a role in how you understand the potential of a site for a future. Therefore, be clear in why each survey point is chosen.

Public life study site selection example:

We want to understand how families access the waterfront, so we will collect data in the street network within a 5-minute walk to the waterfront. We'll count visitors at each cross-street to know where they come from and observe the demographics of the waterfront users.

Selection criteria examples:

❏ High priority for the city

❏ Residential with a high density of family services

❏ No near-term risks of upcoming demolitions or redevelopment projects

❏ In a neighborhood with an engaged community who can take a stewardship role

Connectivity heat map

you can compare the results

❏ People: Consider if you need volunteers & train them to collect & input data

❏ Location: Decide where you’ll be stationed for each method (number of survey areas, lines for moving counts)

❏ Materials: Identify the materials you’ll need in the field (e.g., clipboards, pens, survey forms)

Site planning forPublic Life study

ITC Friendly Lighthouse Project at Lumbini Garden, Pune, India

Background

The Urban95 program in Pune has been initiated by Van Leer Foundation to make Pune a child and family-friendly city. As young children are dependent on their caregivers for engaging with the city, they need safe and accessible spaces in the city where they can play and explore stimulating, physical environments.

The main objective of this project is to create interventions that make Pune a city in which ITCs have safe and playful opportunities to interact with their surroundings. The program focuses on making the amenities in cities more accessible, safe, playful, green and inclusive for young children(0-6) and their caregivers through urban planning and design.

Key Objectives

Lighthouse is a flagship project of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) in partnership with Pune City. The main objective of this program is to provide the underprivileged youth of Pune a chance to enhance their skills and help them toward a meaningful career. The project’s target to build one Lighthouse per ward, and for each Lighthouse to be accessible to minimum 3-4 slum communities. PMC and the Lighthouse staff found that the majority of the students enrolled in the Lighthouse are female, most of them married and with young children.

Behavior change goals:

➔ Caregivers and young children restrict their mobile phone usage in Lumbini Garden

➔ People are safe inside and outside of the Lumbini garden

➔ Fathers bring their children regularly to Lumbini Garden

➔ Sanitary amenities are available

2023

Pune, India

Pune Municipal Corporation; Van Leer Foundation; CCCI, New Delhi; Egis India Consulting Engineers Pvt. Ltd. Key Partners

ITC Friendly Lighthouse Project at Lumbini Garden, Pune, India

Key Activities & Outcomes

➔ Study Design: Identifying the Purpose of the Lighthouse project

➔ Needs Assessment and Data Collection:

◆ Quantitative Surveys: Collected data to assess the need for child friendly facilities, focusing on impact and beneficiaries

◆ Qualitative Surveys: Gathered insights from caregivers andPMC officials

➔ Data Analysis: The collected data was analyzed to develop the project rationale and inform the concept design.

➔ Design Development and Implementation:

◆ Conducting research on best practices, both locally and globally.

◆ Design of intervention and iteration based on stakeholder feedback, leading to a final design

➔ Evaluation: Post implementation surveys and monitoring the project’s sustainability.

Community engagement session

Sensory garden

Fathers group discussion

Sensory garden education

Build a Coalition

Engage Stakeholders

Building a Coalition and Stakeholder Engagement Plan

Using Community Engagement to inform the project vision and strategy

A strong coalition of partners is essential for sustaining project impact through alliances. The right partners with differing skills and perspectives will increase buy-in from key decision-makers. Key coalition members for a public realm project and public life data collection effort could be:

➔ Local Government Officials: Provide supporting approvals and resources. Engage early to align policy and existing programs

➔ Community leaders: Provide insights into local needs and foster community buy-in. Maintain regular communication to ensure ongoing support throughout the project

➔ ECD and behavioral experts: Help focus and target the design for behavioral change. Regular check-ins to integrate their insights into project planning and implementation

➔ Private sector: Support innovation and technology-driven solutions through funding projects, enabling scalable impact

Managing coalition members requires setting shared goals and fostering a culture of data-informed decision-making.

Engage those who will directly or indirectly benefit from the project. Aim to understand the community’s everyday needs and find meaningful ways to ensure their voices are reflected in the public life data. Community engagement is often an afterthought in the planning process, coming at the end of a project to sign off on implementation.

However, community engagement can benefit the beginning of a project to inform site selection, during the design phase to ensure success, or after public life data is collected to reflect and react to the public life patterns observed. Utilize community feedback throughout the public life data process and sustain their involvement.

Considerations for engagement:

➔ Create a welcoming environment

➔ Use age-appropriate communication techniques for your audience

➔ Engage caregivers as key advocates of children

➔ Offer flexibility via different platforms (online, in-person, mobile friendly)

➔ Empower children to participate in engagement activities and ensure that safeguarding practices are in place

Focus Groups

Set a Shared Public Life Vision

Setting the shared public life vision

A shared public life vision serves as the guiding "north star" for any data collection effort. It clarifies the purpose behind collecting public life data, defines the desired impact, and identifies potential behavior change goals. This vision is "shared" because it should be developed collaboratively through engagement with relevant stakeholders.

Having a shared vision is essential for ensuring that partners and community groups feel represented and aligned with the vision. It should be anchored by a central research question and inspire the design of the public life data study, guiding how the findings translate into measurable behavior changes. While the vision can be broad, it should still address specific, measurable goals.

Vision statement example:

We will transform [Park Name] into an engaging outdoor space where caregivers actively play with their children. [Park Name] will foster a community where families return often, building a shared culture of meaningful outdoor interaction and recreation.

Identifying desired project impacts based on the shared vision

When the objective of studying public life is behavior change—which it often can be—it’s important to set clear, measurable impact goals. These goals should be rooted in the overall shared vision and take into account the programs, public space users, and organizations involved in the project.

The desired impacts of the project guide what specific aspects of public life you choose to observe in public spaces and shape how you aim to influence behavior through a public space intervention, event, or project.

Project impact examples:

➔ Increase in physical activity and socializing for children

➔ Support of children’s development (eg: motor skills, and cognitive health)

➔ Socio-demographic mixing among caregivers

Copenhagen case study

The city’s public life vision and the collective impact of the city’s public realm transformation is measured and communicated back to residents through documents such as the Urban Life Account.This report provides valuable data on how people use and respond to implemented projects, illustrating both current outcomes and future city planning goals.

Early Childhood Development

Interventions in Mixco City

Background

Mixco City is the second most populated city in Guatemala, with 463,019 inhabitants spread across 132 km². The city’s rapid growth has created a pressing need for additional urban interventions with a focus on early childhood, especially in vulnerable areas, recognizing the critical need for children to have a good start in life.

In early 2022, United Way Guatemala (UWG) proposed a series of intersectoral tactical urban interventions focused on early childhood development in Guatemala.

The project follows the Urban95 model for urban interventions that support early childhood development, by embedding the program's content into Mixco’s Land Use Plan. This is achieved through awareness, advocacy, and promotion efforts within the Municipality, alongside support from local organizations.

Key Objectives

➔ Increase the availability of high-quality urban infrastructure dedicated to early childhood development through interventions in public spaces and parks.

➔ Promote family interaction within child-friendly urban environments.

➔ Establish an intersectoral agenda for a progressive and comprehensive approach to early childhood needs.

➔ Raise awareness about Early Childhood Development and foster social interactions in public spaces through a digital campaign.

2022

Mixco City, Guatemala Location Van Leer Foundation, FEMSA Foundation, Municipality of Mixco, Fundaeco, University Rafael Landivar, Cementos Progreso, La Paleta, Zone 6 community. Key Partners

Early Childhood Development

Interventions in Mixco City

Key Activities & Outcomes

Coalition Building

After a series of meetings, the project was endorsed by the Municipality of Mixco, leading to a Memorandum of Understanding between UWG and the Municipality. UWG developed a stakeholder map to establish partnerships during implementation, creating a strong intersectoral alliance between the project partners, all of which supported various programmatic interventions.

Measure, Test, Refine

Five places were selected, including Salayá Park, Mother's Park and an urban corridor leading to a public school.

The project enabled local artists, neighbors and children to creatively participate in the design of child-friendly streets. This empowered the community to express their views, which were incorporated into the project. Architecture students used public life data to measure spaces to inform the urban planning decisions, and private companies generously donated materials to support the recovery of sidewalks and the creation of murals.

After the completion of Salayá Park, public space activations were conducted such as storytelling sessions, learning activities for primary students, sports, and art programs. The space is now well-organized, solar-lit, and reclaimed for public use. Children aged 4 - 12 regularly participate, and the park is connected to a local market.

Share & Scale

One year after its inauguration, an evaluation revealed that the time children and their caregivers spent in public spaces increased from 1 hour/week to 3 hours/week due to activation strategies, showcasing the success of this urban intervention. Similar strategies were applied to other "residual spaces."

Donations from private companies increased the project’s impact, enabling interventions in 10 areas instead of the initially planned 4. As a result of the interventions, the Municipality of Mixco created a guide, “Street Design Focused on Early Childhood,” which has inspired the Municipality of Quetzaltenango to develop a similar guide for playground design.

Time children & caregivers spend in public spaces increased x3

Safe School Crossing Salayá Park

Volunteers forSalayá Park

Measure, Test, Refine

Create an Evaluation Plan to Study Public Life Results

Developing a public life evaluation plan

An evaluation plan will help you tell public life stories according to your vision. Stay focused on the research question and start with simple metrics you know you and your team can execute. Even a little public life data goes a long way.

Structuring Your Evaluation Plan

Organize the Public Life study according to a few desired impacts, key drivers, desired outcomes, and the metrics needed to measure them - not forgetting the scale of your site.

➔ Drivers: Set specific outcomes within each driver to contribute to the project’s primary impacts.

➔ Outcomes & Metrics: Assign metrics to each outcome to assess whether the target goals are met.

The evaluation plan should be specific about the site scale and timeframe available for the study. For example, if are you evaluating a pop-up event or a large scale capital improvement project.

Determining when to study public life

Before implementing the evaluation plan, it’s important to reflect on when public life data will be most useful, realistic, and valuable to measure. Work with partners to identify the right moments to collect this data to ensure its relevance in informing decision-making and project outcomes.

Public life data is particularly useful in capturing how people engage with public spaces under specific circumstances.

Key moments to consider for data collection include:

➔ During an event or cultural activation:

To understand how programming influences public space usage and draws different groups of people

➔ Before, during, and after a project implementation: To evaluate the impact of a public space intervention by comparing baseline conditions with changes over time

➔ During different seasons: To observe how usage patterns fluctuate with seasonal changes and environmental factors

➔ Following changes in the surrounding neighborhood: To assess how new developments, infrastructure changes, or population growth affect public space usage and behavior

Project Vision

e.g. “A family-friendly city”

Impacts

e.g. spaces that improve children’s health outcomes

Drivers

e.g. access & wayfinding

Outcomes

e.g. the site is accessible for a wide range of potential visitors

Metrics

e.g. bike lane accessibility to the site

Set the evaluation plan according to resources and local capacity

Impacts

e.g. strong relationships between parents and children

Drivers

e.g. diverse play

Outcomes

e.g. the site encourages a range of activities that promote physical activity

Drivers

e.g. program & activation

Outcomes

e.g. diverse programming offerings adjacent to access points

Metrics

e.g. number of children engaged in play

Metrics

e.g. number of activities / workshops offered

Public Life Methods:

● See the Urban95 Public LifeToolkit for all the tools you need

Piloting for Change

The measure, test, refine approach for piloting change

Once a baseline of data is collected and analyzed, project design and implementation can begin. Any project can run through an iterative process or what we call “measure, test, refine”. Small, testable public space projects can help cities move faster and make smarter decisions with stronger public input. After implementing and testing a pilot project, you can revisit the original evaluation plan to validate the findings and accurately communicate the impact.

Pilot projects give cities the ability to:

➔ Test an idea on a 1:1 scale, engaging more people than traditional planning can by meeting people in space as part of their everyday routine

➔ Shorten the distance between citizen and decision maker, and idea and implementation

➔ Create a feedback loop between community need, intervention, and use

➔ Fail fast to allow adjustments to a long-term vision based on real information

➔ Envision the unimaginable to build community support around new ideas and opportunities

➔ Manage risk inherent in capital projects by testing ideas in a low-risk environment before full-scale implementation

The "measure, test, refine" approach supports informed decision-making, helping you determine whether to discard a project, scale it up with a larger investment, or adjust and improve it before proceeding.

Qualify and establish needs based on registrations

Several design solutions tested Choose one of three outcomes based on evaluation

User feedback and performance

Change project

Implement project

Discard project EVALUATION

Novo Horizonte Childhood Area

Key Partners

2023-2024

Year Jundiaí, Brasil Location Ateliê Navio, Urban95 | Van Leer Foundation, Prefeitura de Jundiaí, CoCriança, Corrida Amiga, Parque de Bambu

Background

The concept of the ‘Childhood Area’ was developed by Ateliê Navio in partnership with Prefeitura de Jundiaí, as part of the Urban95 initiative in Jundiaí, Brazil. A ‘Childhood Area’ is an area designed with input from children, prioritizing safety of children and their caregivers.

It consists of at least:

➔ Public facilities: providing services to families and supporting other interventions as part of the project.

➔ Naturalistic spaces: outdoor spaces with playgrounds made from natural elements allow children to engage in active unstructured play, exercising their creativity and strengthening connection to public space.

➔ Road safety features: creating safer and more accessible crossings for families on their daily routes and/or improvement of pedestrian spaces with playful elements.

In Jundiaí, three Childhood Areas have been implemented in Vila Arens, Novo Horizonte, and Santa Gertrudes. In the Novo Horizonte neighborhood, the following activities were conducted:

Data collection of the public space

➔ Air quality measurement

➔ Flows of active and motorized modes

➔ Public space appropriation

➔ Vehicle speed & noise measurement

➔ Traffic accidents

Engagement and listening

➔ Presentation of the proposal and distribution of a questionnaire

➔ Meeting with residents and representatives to understand key challenges

➔ Workshop with children to explore the concept of the naturalistic park

➔ Presentation and discussion of the project with the community

Novo Horizonte Childhood Area

Key Activities & Outcomes

Measure, Test, Refine

During the community listening session, it was found that high-speed cars, lack of signage, and litter along the way were identified as challenges in the school commute, with 60.3% of caregivers feeling unsafe regarding road safety.

A children's square, a park, and a walking path were mentioned as needs for leisure and culture in the area. 11.5% of the children had no contact with nature in the neighborhood, and 86.7% wanted more trees along the sidewalks.

Thus, a naturalistic park was designed on a public plot of land that was previously unused. Connections were proposed between the new park and existing public facilities, including expanded sidewalks, shaded resting areas, and playful elements along the pathway.

The children explored the site designated for the park and engaged in activities to share their wishes and expectations for the Naturalistic Park. The insights gathered from these activities guided the design of the park's playful elements.

Outcomes

After the interventions, monitoring was conducted, including data collection and community interviews. Among the outcomes, we highlight:

➔ Use of public spaces: The occupancy of public spaces increased, with adults and children interacting, flying kites, and engaging in various activities on weekends. 43% of respondents visit the naturalistic park daily.

➔ Change in school commute: There was a 5% decrease in the number of caregivers driving children to school and a 12% increase in those walking.

➔ Public safety: According to respondents, the increased activity generated by the intervention resulted in greater public safety for everyone.

➔ Road safety: The average vehicle speed significantly decreased. All respondents believe the project improved road safety, highlighting better signage and increased public awareness.

12% increase in caregivers walking their kids to school

Naturalistic Park Street Furniture

Safe School Streets in Mixco, Guatemala

2024 Year Mixco, Guatemala Location Locus Lab, United Way Guatemala, Van Leer, FEMSA, Fe y Alegría School, Universidad Rafael Landívar, Municipality of Mixco, Auxiliary Municipality of Zone 6, CapGemini Key Partners

Background

In 2024, Locus Lab implemented a project within the framework of United Way Guatemala (UWG) Urban95 program, in collaboration with Van Leer Foundation, FEMSA Foundation, and the Municipality of Mixco. With support from the Universidad Rafael Landívar, the initiative addressed safety and accessibility challenges in public spaces surrounding schools. It focused on enhancing public spaces around three schools, including Fe y Alegría School, which serves over 1,200 students daily.

Using the Urban95 Public Space Public Life Toolkit, baseline data was collected to identify critical pedestrian and vehicular dynamics. Observational studies revealed that 70% of students walk to school, emphasizing the necessity for safer, more inclusive pedestrian infrastructure. Surveys and focus groups highlighted a shared concern that parents and caregivers felt unsafe due to the proximity of schools to high-traffic boulevards.

The intervention implemented tactical urbanism solutions, including:

➔ Enhanced pedestrian safety: Repainted and widened crosswalks with vibrant, child-friendly designs to alert drivers and prioritize pedestrian flow.

➔ Playful public spaces: Introduced interactive and colorful elements to transform waiting areas into engaging environments while raising awareness about the school's location.

➔ Stakeholder participation: The municipality further complemented the project with creative campaigns, including clown-led road safety shows, integrating entertainment with civic education.

Safe School Streets in Mixco, Guatemala

Key Outcomes

Impact and Scalability

Post-intervention evaluations of the site conducted using the Urban95 Quality Criteria tool showcased remarkable improvements:

➔ Perception of safety: People using the site reported feeling a sense of “good safety.” Safety perceptions rose from 8% to 92%, with zero respondents rating the space as unsafe.

➔ Community engagement: Workshops on road safety using playful activities designed for children engaged the local students and families, fostering long-term behavioral change and participation.

Scaling and Sustainability

The success of the pilots in Mixco's three schools provide a scalable model for creating safe routes and enhancing public spaces citywide. As a next step, the Municipality of Mixco will institutionalize these interventions into municipal policy, ensuring safe, vibrant environments for all schools in the district. This case illustrates how a "Measure, Test, Refine" approach enables cities to respond dynamically to challenges, foster data-driven decision-making and create lasting changes in public life.

92% of people now feel safe on this school street

Tactical intervention design

Behaviorchange workshop

Youth engagement workshop

Before Intervention

Share and Scale

Craft Impact Stories

You can use public life data to create impact stories at any stage of a project. It can be important to advocate for a project or to communicate the impact of an implemented project. Impact stories can tackle questions like: “Is there a case for investing in a public realm intervention here?” Or “Did the project actually change people’s behavior?”

Validation of the data will allow you to clearly communicate future strategies or a project’s impact to key stakeholders — including city planners, policymakers, or residents — demonstrating new knowledge on public life, perceptions of public spaces, or other goals set at the beginning of a project. Sharing these validated outcomes at strategic points, such as community forums or city council meetings, will ultimately foster transparency and build support for future public life initiatives.

Reengaging local stakeholders

You can bring together the key collaborators to co-evaluate public life data findings or react to the findings at the end of a project. Their participation could be the key to amplifying impact or supporting implementation or scaling.

Considering your audience

Depending on who the audience is, the objective behind the story will vary. Identify the who and the why behind the impact story. Be mindful of the role you have in the community and how it may influence the way in which the story will be received.

What to consider when creating impact stories

➔ Make it stick: Using narrative structure and language to crisply and catchily tell the story to make the story memorable

➔ Make it quantitative: Analyzing and presenting a mix of quantitative data will make the challenges and opportunities clear

➔ Make it visual: Illustrating with photos, graphics, and data visualizations make the story digestible

➔ Make it Human: Interesting quotes, anecdotes, and accessible language make the story relatable

Who

Identify who your audience is and how to communicate with them

Community Members Partner Organisations Policy Makers

Why

❏ To build trust

❏ To get feedback and gather input

❏ To understand their experiences

❏ To build awareness for the work you’re doing

❏ To build awareness for the work you’re doing

❏ To build consensus

❏ To learn from their experiences

❏ To identify or build strategic partnerships

❏ To build awareness for the work you’re doing

❏ To gain support and build momentum

❏ To create a shared understanding of the context

Scale for Impact

➔ Bring local businesses and organizations into the everyday life of the space to activate it on a regular basis. Invite more activity in the space — without having to run formal programming — by inviting others to “own” and activate the space.

➔ Encourage community-driven activation, tapping into existing systems when possible.

➔ Invite local organizations with established ties in the community to use the space for events and classes that invite the community in.

➔ Invite community members into the space early and actively – especially in niche recreational spaces like skateparks.

➔ Activation is especially important for niche recreational activities like skating that community members may not already be involved in, and for underrepresented groups that may not feel automatically welcomed.

Maintaining for the long-term

➔ Consider a collaborative funding approach.

➔ Generate buy-in for long-term maintenance by bringing multiple stakeholders to the table in project financing and operations.

➔ Tap into community leadership of public and play spaces.

➔ Projects that seed a sense of ownership in the space and cultivate a sense of organic stewardship help maintain the site beyond completion.

➔ Amenities can build a sense of shared ownership.

➔ Designing for a wide range of users, including those who don’t use the space in its intended purpose, but use its wrap-around amenities, generates more demand for a well-kept space.

Scale to new sites

➔ Leverage Data-Driven Advocacy: Use the measured outcomes and the compelling data stories to build strong, evidence-based cases that advocate for replication, while engaging city officials, planners, and funders to prioritize these initiatives in new neighborhoods.

➔ Develop a Scalable Design and Implementation Model: Create adaptable guidelines and toolkits based on the successful project's design, features, and operational insights, allowing other areas to replicate or customize specific elements.

➔ Build Partnerships and Secure Funding: Partner with local organizations, businesses, and community groups to co-sponsor new spaces, using the demonstrated impact to attract new funding and resources for expansion.

Built to Play: Bridging inequities in play and public space access

2022-2023

Background

New York & Michigan, USA

Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, KABOOM!, and The Skatepark Project Key Partners

Gehl was invited by the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation to lead an comprehensive impact assessment of nine projects in their Built to Play portfolio from 2022 - 2023. The aim of the assessment of the Foundation’s landmark investments in play spaces and skateparks across the region was to make sense of the impact on an individual, site, community, and system to propel and further investment to advance play equity.

The Foundation has invested more than $10 million in 91 new play spaces and skateparks since 2018. The impact assessment consisted of a multi-method approach to best address the following goals:

➔ Understand outcomes of Built to Play

➔ Reveal actionable opportunities to improve program, design, and process for future investments

➔ Generate new insights on the process and outcomes of play & place for the wider field

Evaluation focus areas

➔ Awareness and understanding

➔ Community participation and power

➔ Everyday play and life

➔ Project infrastructure and sustainability

➔ Community and economic development

➔ Public opinion and policy

Methods deployed in the impact assessment

➔ Surveys with 41 project lead responses

➔ Surveys with 372 site visitor responses

➔ Child-friendly drawing exercises

➔ Public life observations with 454 people observed at deep dive sites

➔ Spatial analysis using 12 Quality Criteria and a Place Inventory

➔ One focus group per site

➔ Site walks with project leads

This playground is inventive and creative and really cool. Otherwise, you go somewhere with a normal playground like at my middle school. It’s cool that it is downtown. - Kid playing

Built to Play: Bridging inequities in play and public space access

Key Outcomes

Outputs to support scaling and communication of impact

As a result of the impact assessment, the team developed a website hosting a range of resources to support the Foundation, the local communities and their partners to better advocate for play and skating.

The website consists of:

➔ Case studies to share important site-specific learnings to support a variety of actors to tell impact stories

➔ Resources for each stage of a public space development process, like talking points to communicate the varied benefits of unstructured play or tactics to find funding for new projects

➔ The assessment report which contains an overview of the methodology used and project learnings

Learnings for how to communicate the varied benefits of unstructured play

➔ Underscore free play’s role in fostering health and social outcomes for children (and adults!)

➔ Communicate the necessity for physical infrastructure that enables unstructured play

➔ Highlight play spaces’ and skateparks’ community development impacts such as bringing foot traffic to local businesses

➔ Embrace the potential of play to steer area and city planning

➔ Celebrate the consensus building power of play projects

The Spectrum of Social Interaction at Built to Play Projects

Observe Interact Befriend

3 in 10

people observed in skateparks were people-watching 2x more than in other sites.

7 in 10

adults observed in play spaces were engaged in a social activity.

Half of survey respondents reported making new friends or acquaintances at their site.

80% of BIPOC visitors felt the space was special to them (compared to 65% of white visitors)

Interactive Play, Highland Ave Park ChandlerParkSkatepark

Urban95 Public Life Data Tools

Urban95 Public Life Data Tools and Resources

Celebrate Public Life

Celebrate Public Life is an image crowdsourcing website that invites people to share public life stories to build collective knowledge about the special places that make life great in cities.

Access Celebrate Public Life here. celebratepubliclife.com

Urban95 Public Life App

It is best used on a desktop computer.

This app helps users record quantitative and qualitative observational data on public life, which can be used to evaluate an existing public space, identify certain behaviors, or monitor the effects of an intervention.

Public Space Public Life Toolkit

Access the U95 Public Life App here. u95.publiclifeapp.com/lite

It is best used on a phone.

This is a how-to guide for measuring children and caregivers in public space. Tools covered in this publication are counting people moving, stationary activity mapping, intercept surveys and sensory mapping.

Access the Toolkit here. vanleerfoundation.org

It is best used on a desktop or printed.