Mara Mintzer is a Co-Founder and Executive Director of Growing Up Boulder (GUB), Boulder, Colorado, USA’s child- and youth-friendly city initiative.  Ms. Mintzer presents and writes internationally on the topic of engaging young people in community planning and child-friendly cities.  Her TEDx talk, “How Kids Can Help Design Cities,” has been viewed 2.3 million times and translated into 21 languages.  Co-author of the book, Placemaking with Children and Youth: Participatory Practices for Planning Sustainable Communities, Ms. Mintzer has designed and implemented programs for underserved families in New York and California.  Ms. Mintzer received her B.A. in Psychology from Brown University and her M.A. in Organizational Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University. 

AJ and Mara discuss a host of exciting topics with a clear focus on how integral children and their viewpoints can be both to the way we plan, and the way cities operate. For some, the idea of including children in the planning process can seem daunting, but Mara shares how to overcome that, and how much can be gained by this new way of thinking about planning.

About Mara & Growing Up Boulder:

https://www.growingupboulder.org/

https://www.growingupboulder.org/our-team.html#mara

Mentioned in this Episode:

Mara’s TEDx Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/mara_mintzer_how_kids_can_help_design_cities

The Nature of Cities documentary: https://greenplanetfilms.org/products/the-nature-of-cities

Editorial on Boulder Creek: https://www.dailycamera.com/2017/07/28/mara-mintzer-boulder-youth-had-input-on-civic-area-project/

Boulder’s Child-Friendly City Map:https://www.growingupboulder.org/gubmap.html

Placemaking with Children and Youth: Participatory Practices for Planning Sustainable Communities (co-authored with Derr, V., and Chawla, L.): https://bookshop.org/p/books/placemaking-with-children-and-youth-participatory-practices-for-planning-sustainable-communities-louise-chawla/12401995?ean=9781613321003

James Rojas, John Kamp, and Place It!: https://www.placeit.org/bio_james_rojas.html

Edgar Chavarria: https://www.growingupboulder.org/our-impact.html

Publications & News:

Mintzer, M., & Chawla, L. (2020). Turning Young People’s Ideas into Action: Learning from Long-term Partnerships for Child and Youth Participation. In J. Loebach, S. Little, A. Cox, & P. E. Owens (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Designing Public Spaces for Young People : Processes, Practices and Policies for Youth Inclusion. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429505614

Mintzer, M. (2019, February 9). These were the reasons behind the Wonderland Lake plans. Daily Camera. Retrieved from https://www.dailycamera.com/2019/02/08/mara-mintzer-these-were-the-reasons-behind-the-wonderland-lake-plans/

 City of Boulder. (2018, July 23). Inside Boulder News -  Growing Up Boulder. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3qU9_wVHcw

Mintzer, M., & Flanders Cushing, D. (2017). Engaging children and adolescents in local decision-making: Growing Up Boulder as a practical model. In K. Bishop & L. Corkery (Eds.), Designing Cities with Children and Young People : Beyond Playgrounds and Skate Parks. New York, NY: Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315710044-15/engaging-children-adolescents-local-decision-making-mara-mintzer-debra-flanders-cushing

Mintzer, M. (2017, July 28). Boulder youth had input on civic area project. Daily Camera. Retrieved from https://www.dailycamera.com/2017/07/28/mara-mintzer-boulder-youth-had-input-on-civic-area-project/

University of Sheffield: Growing Up Boulder's "Great, Green Neighborhoods" project is featured on the Designing with Children website produced by the University of Sheffield in the UK; https://www.designingwithchildren.net/db/great_green-neighborhoods_growing-up-boulder_

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