Lets build a park for Life and Peace in Cazuca, Soacha a vulnerable settlement outside the city of Bogota, Colombia! This is a pilot intervention as part of the broader initiative "Safer urban environments for Children and Youth (C&Y) in Vulnerable Settlements" that is being carried out in association with Fundacion Tiempo de Juego (TdJ) and the Community Engagement program sponsored by Arup. "The Park for Life and Peace" aims to improve safety for C&Y in public spaces and streets in Santillana
Cazuca is a vulnerable settlement in Soacha, a neighboring municipality of Bogota, where urban and social issues prevail and thus create an unsafe and insecure environment commonly characterized by domestic violence, drug abuse and gangs. In addition to this, 20% of the population are aged 6 to 18 and faces not only these challenges but also have limited access to safe places for them to enjoy quality free time away from the dangers and risks of a restrictive urban environment.
Having identified the urgent need for safety in C&Y's daily urban life as well as the opportunity which TdJ recognized in sports and, more importantly, in its associated public spaces, we have co-created a pilot intervention named as "A Park for Life and Peace". Through workshops carried out with parents, caregivers and C&Y, we have designed a safe place which will foster growth, interaction, play and appropriation within the community.
Our main goal is to contribute to the positive transformation of urban environments that are safer, particularly for C&Y. This intervention will help in i) improving C&Ys safety perceptions of the public spaces and streets they inhabit daily, ii) increasing community's appropriation of their public spaces and iii) invigorate social cohesion and therefore, promote community resilience to build, program and maintain safer urban environments.
