Measuring park quality for youth

The purpose of this report is to better understand how public parks can meet the developmental, physical, and mental wellbeing needs of adolescents, in other words: what ‘quality’ parks look like for youth 13-19. It focuses on a number of factors including how 'quality' is interpreted by different genders.

Deliverables include a summary of contemporary research on adolescent needs and the characteristics that encourage park visitation, as well as an evaluative tool that can be altered or updated in the future to measure relative park quality for youth users and guide capital investment. A Vancouver case study is used to illustrate the applicability of the tool in planning for this population.

About Jelena Kocmaruk:

Jelena is a PLanning Analyst at Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation

A Langara Applied Planning Program Major Project:

Langara College: https://langara.ca/programs-and-courses/programs/applied-planning/index.html

Access resource

Author: Jelena Kocmaruk (Canada)

Estimated Read Time: 1 hour read

Related resources

The Safer Parks Consortium (UK)

Safer Parks: Improving access for women and girls

(FULL VERSION) - Long read

This new guidance focuses on how design, management and maintenance can be improved to create better parks for women and girls safety.

Tbilisi Municipality (Georgia)

Fair shared green and recreational spaces

Long read

Tbilisi is one of only a handful of cities around the world that have written guidance for more gender inclusive public spaces. Could you be the next?

The Public Space Research Group (USA / Worldwide)

Toolkit for the Ethnographic Study of Space

1 hour read

An innovative method for assessing public space with regards to people's use and experience which helps create places that welcome everyone.