Young people and children have a vested interest in their own neighbourhoods, yet are often not part of the long-term engagement process. To ensure that young people’s voices are heard, it is essential to create opportunities for them to learn about and engage in the design process.

Our starting point has been creating a unique awards scheme ‘Inspire Future Generations Awards, now in its third year, bringing together a new ‘community of practice’ and recognising and celebrating their excellent projects and programmes, energy and passions!. The 2023 Awards ceremony was again hosted by the Building Centre and this year we were delighted we were joined by the GLA Deputy Mayor, Jules Pipe, who praised our awards and finalists' commitment to empowering the next generation whilst emphasising the need for greater diversity in the industry to foster a truly inclusive city.

Our goals:

• demonstrating the valuable skills, opportunities and knowledge to children and young people

• encouraging joined-up thinking and sharing of resources

• embedding youth-led design approaches within architectural and urban design practice

• promoting the value of youth-led design within the built environment sector

• creating a lasting impact on the design process and the communities involved

• inspiring the creation of a future generation of placemakers

• informing policy

  Through our various initiatives and publications, we seek to create a community of practice dedicated to engaging and empowering young people to have a voice in their future.