‘Can we have talk about the city in a different way?’
Foundation YOU, formerly Ken Je Stad Maak Je Stad, aims to promote young people’s ownership of the city living environment through layered educational projects in the form of a book, manifesto and/or activities.
From school year 2022/23, seventh grade students from 76 schools in Rotterdam received the graphic novel METRO O1O for free.
The book’s primary target group is seventh grade students in the city of Rotterdam. This is the group that, instead of taking the scooter around the corner, will go to school further away from home and explore the city more on their own. But what do they actually know about the city?
Inside the cover flap of the school edition of the book is a series of questions that excite both at school and at home to investigate themes from METRO O1O.
The tasks can be worked on in a variety of ways: individually or in groups, thinking or doing, in the classroom or outside on the street.
The questions connect not only to the various chapters of the book, but also to the schools’ curriculum and major societal themes such as inclusivity, equity, energy, climate transition, citizenship, et cetera.
The book can be integrated into the existing curriculum in various ways and “plug-and-play” by teachers. The teaching materials allow them to integrate the book into ongoing teaching materials as easily as possible. Most of the classroom materials were prepared in cooperation with the educational department of the Central Library Rotterdam.
During the Polis Convention 2024 in Düsseldorf, De Zwarte Hond organized a workshop on the polisWERK.STADT in which we developed the Manifesto ‘The City Makers of Tomorrow’ together with the participants. In it, based on 11 statements, we call on professional city makers to involve young people when developing projects in the city.
Foto: Loes van Duijvendijk
