valdivia Neighborhoods OF CARE

Our project “Valdivia Neighborhood of Care” uses the Proximity of Care methodology to transform a car oriented street into a neighborhood focused on promoting a healthier and safer early child development in the city of Valdivia, Chile.  The transformation is focused on Avenida Argentina, with a high concentration of children, schools and kindergarten lacking safe spaces to play and get around. 

Our goal is to protect pedestrian spaces from heavy traffic, creating new playgrounds and resting places for children and their caregivers and transforming the space to create a safer, healthier and more stimulating environment.

The main lesson that we learned from the Proximity of Care Guide was how to incorporate toddlers into a project vision, engaging parents and caregivers on the relationship their children have with the city and the built environment

We believe the Proximity of Care methodology is a great tool for local governments to really measure how child-friendly -or toddler-friendly- their city or neighborhoods are.

If we can use this approach to create a baseline for neighborhoods and cities to evaluate themselves and commit to improvements with the children in mind, we think it can spur a lot of improvements in our built environment and in the way we think about cities. If cities work for children, and specially toddlers and their families, we believe they can work for everyone else.

Between November 2023 and January 2024, various participatory activities were conducted to refine the submitted project and seek funding for its implementation, whether through public or private resources.

Imágenes: Después - Durante - Antes