Building a Child Impact Assessment Tool for the City of Edmonton

This 7-page report describes an initiative on the part of Yates, Thorn & Associates (a Victoria, British Columbia-based social planning consultancy) to develop a Child Impact Assessment Tool - a "lens" through which the impact of programmes, policies and initiatives on children and youth could be examined - in the City of Edmonton, in Canada.

A key purpose of this initiative was to promote the implementation of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child within this City; click here [PDF] for further details about the City's vision of the Convention and its integration into community life through:

• The City's Integrated Services Strategy - a strategic, long-range plan that is built around the following 7 values: human dignity; personal wellness and health; environmental integrity; social justice; an attractive city; and quality experiences.
• The City's Children's Services Framework - an effort to create a child-friendly city by working toward the following 6 goals (identified through consultation with both children and adults): advocate for children; align programmes, services, and facilities to children's needs; eliminate accessibility barriers; support families; enable children to become contributing citizens.

In this context, the Child Impact Assessment Tool is a methodology for understanding to what extent the City is re-aligning reality to cohere with these 7 values and to move toward these 6 goals - that is, to create "a local system of good governance committed to fulfilling children's rights." In addition to fostering assessment, it is designed to educate various groups about children's services, support advocacy efforts, and, ultimately, become part of the business planning processes of the City. In conceptual terms, the use of the tool involves:

• Selection of certain departmental programmes, policies, services and amenities for assessment.
• Use by programme staff of a standard form/template to comment on the impact of the programme on children and youth, especially from the perspective of the 7 values identified above. This is a collaborative process involving individual rating, group discussion and facilitated mediation.
• Identification of programme improvements.
• Decision-making about if and how changes can be made to the programme.
• Enhancement of programmes based on the above.

As of this writing, the Child Impact Assessment Tool is being piloted in the City of Edmonton.