The Art of Making Places – Engaging Young People in Determining the Future of their Neighbourhoods

Stewart C¹*

1. FutureScapes Consultancy Services, Hastings Point, NSW, Australia

Making Places is a futures education project that engages young people in exploring what safer, healthier and more sustainable futures for their neighbourhoods could be like. Not only do young people participate in class room discussions about the sort of future they would like to live in, but they also actively engage in community life via the creation of public artworks, presentations to local government and media, designing commentated bus tours to the places they like/dislike in their neighbourhoods, and participating in the redesign of public streetscapes and parks.

In this presentation, Carmen Stewart will document the journey that Making Places has taken in Logan City, opening new pathways for community involvement in decision making and nurturing the important qualities of a sense of place and hope in the future. Students who have journeyed with the project will participate in the presentation sharing their hopes and fears for the future of our neighbourhoods and world, as well as talking about the ways in which they have engaged with their communities through the Making Places project.

The Making Places project has been funded by the Department of Housing’s Community Renewal Program in South East Queensland and has been auspiced by Logan City Council and Education Queensland.

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