The City of Vantaa is now a Child Friendly City. Finnish Committee for UNICEF granted the City of Vantaa the Child Friendly Cities recognition in January 2024. Child Friendly Cities recognition is granted for two years at a time.

The city of Vantaa was accepted into the trial of the Child Friendly City Initiative by the UNICEF Finnish National Committee at the start of 2021. Child Friendly Cities work is been committed involving the city as a whole with children and the young strongly involved as well.

Eskarilainen esittelee kartonginsta askartelemiaan lapsilaseja.

The city of Vantaa was accepted into the trial of the Child Friendly City Initiative by the UNICEF Finnish National Committee at the start of 2021. The Child Friendly City Initiative serves as a tool, which UNICEF provides the participating municipalities with. It makes it easier for the municipality to make the right decisions in its administration and services and in the everyday life of children in regards to the well-being of the child. It also helps the municipalities to ensure that the children’s rights are being fulfilled as extensively as possible, including children with fewer opportunities.

How the work is progressing

The Child Friendly City work is begins with mapping out the current situation, which includes examining how child-friendly the municipality is now and recognizing which areas of child-friendliness needs to be developed. An action plan is then created based on the assessment in order to define the work to be done for the following years. If a municipality then reaches their goals successfully and are able to promote the Rights of the Child within their work, they will be able to receive the Child Friendly City-recognition.

The City of Vantaa is currently making a new assesment and action plan to be processed by city government in August 2024. The previous Child Friendly City action plan for 2022-2023 can be seen below:

Child Friendly Vantaa Action Plan 2022-23.pdf(pdf, 154.18 KB)

The Child Friendly City Initiative in Vantaa is coordinated by a coordination group. The chairperson of the coordination group is Katri Kalske, Deputy Mayor of the Education and Learning Department. Furthermore, a group of specialists have been assigned to ensure that the Initiative is being implemented. The group of specialists consists of representatives from all departments and the group’s chairperson is Tia Ristimäki, the coordinator of the Child Friendly City Initiative in Vantaa.

Contact information

Tia Ristimäki

Child Friendly Vantaa coordinator

tia.ristimaki(at)vantaa.fi

tel. 050 3124437

Katri Kalske

Chairperson of the coordination group for the Child Friendly City Initiative in Vantaa

Deputy Mayor of the Education and Learning Department

katri.kalske(at)vantaa.fi

Childrens rights

The Child Friendly City Initiative is based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Child Friendly Cities Initiative builds on the following four key articles of the Convention:

1. Non-discrimination and equality

2. Best interests of the child

3. The inherent right to life, survival and development

4. Respect for the views of the child

The Child Friendly City Initiative is helping the city of Vantaa to

  •  Recognize which articles of the Rights of the Child that we need to develop
  •  Define the measures that need to be taken to ensure that the rights of the child are fulfilled as extensively as possible in Vantaa.
  •  Systematically monitor the results and how the work is progressing

Keywords

Child-friendlinessChildrenGuardians