Imagine London

Young people under 19 years of age form more than a quarter of London's population. In 1998, we set up the Imagine London project, designed to gather young Londoners' views on how London could be made a healthier city in which to live and work, in partnership with the National Children's Bureau and the Children's Society.

In a joint King's Fund/Evening Standard poll at the outset of the project, young Londoners identified the following factors as having the greatest impact on London's population:

  • transport
  • the environment
  • crime and community safety
  • people's ability to live healthy lives
  • emotional well-being

During the project, which ended in autumn 2002, each topic was explored through research activities, an interactive website and a series of events. A key aim of the project was to bridge the gap between young Londoners and London's policy-makers, including the Greater London Authority.

Research activities

The Imagine London programme pulled together existing quantitative and qualitative evidence on each of the five themes, looking in particular at how each issue affected young Londoners and, where possible, including young people's views drawn from past surveys and questionnaires.

Events

A two-year programme of five events, one for each of the themes, was organised by groups of around 12 young people who took responsibility for agreeing the issues that would be covered, structuring the day, selecting speakers, inviting participants and hosting each event. Each event was attended by 40–60 young people from across London, and aimed to:

  • work with young people to explore their attitudes to factors such as transport, crime, and the built environment which affect their health; and identify improvements which they would like to see made within London
  • link young people to London's opinion-formers so that young people's ideas are represented when policies which affect their lives are being shaped.
Policy-makers from the Greater London Authority and other relevant organisations were represented at all events.

Imagine London website

imagine london screen shot

The Imagine London website, launched in June 2000, was designed by young people working with professional web designers. Young people from schools and youth groups in different parts of London developed a series of 'digitial diaries' made up of photographs, sound and text clips, looking at transport, the environment, and crime and safety.

The contents of the diaries ranged from young people's views on London's transport systems and how they travelled to school, to their views on their local areas, crime, the police, their housing, and the impact that these had on their health.

The site also acted as an online resource for young people involved in the project, giving information about Imagine London events, reports of previous events and email access to project staff. The Imagine London website is no longer on the internet, but many of the key documents that appeared there are available in the Briefing documents section below.

Manifesto

The Imagine London project culminated in the joint King's Fund/Office of Children's Rights launch of the Imagine London Manifesto for Health and Well-Being (160 kb) [pdf]. The manifesto, together with Action for a Child-Friendly London (a report of the London Children's Strategy Group, a coalition of over 120 organisations in London) was presented to the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, at the London City Hall.

Briefing documents

Key points raised by young people attending each of the events are available below:

Transport

Papers by students at Pimlico School, Westminster: Papers by pupils at King Alfred School, Barnet:

Environment

Papers from pupils at St Saviour's and St Olave's School, Southwark

Healthy living

Well-being

Crime and safety