Future Blocks — Child-Led Community Design, One Block at a Time

2026-07-22

Future Blocks is a rights-based, open source toolkit that transforms token “kids panels” into a repeatable cycle of co-design sprints complete with step-by-step facilitator guidelines, pictogram canvases and safeguarding checklists - enabling municipalities to include and embed children’s ideas directly into the budgets and work-plans with clear You said - We did feedback loops. To validate its adaptability, we will stage six real-world roll-outs across Estonia’s diverse contexts: (1) a border county experiencing acute youth out-migration; (2) a sparsely connected island municipality; (3) a small rural parish on Estonia’s largest island; (4) a regenerated industrial quarter in Tallinn; (5) an innovative live–work–play capital neighbourhood integrating sustainable planning and business incubation; (6) a capital-city public school serving primarily minority-language pupils. We will additionally gather national user feedback via the Estonian National Library’s 28 branches. By piloting Future Blocks in six distinct Estonian settings we ensure our rights-based, child-centred toolkit adapts effortlessly across geographies, socio-economic contexts, governance scales and cultural landscapes, proving it can be seamlessly integrated into any local decision-making cycle. Child teams advance from problem mapping to working prototypes, present at council hearings, and see their proposals adopted in real time. Urban-design researchers will publish an open micro-dataset and peer-reviewed findings, then share all materials under Creative Commons (ET/EN) for rapid pan-EU uptake. Grounded in Article 12 UNCRC, Future Blocks delivers the CERV call’s demand for systemic, inclusive participation—giving children genuine voice, agency and democratic skills while strengthening their sense of belonging.

Estonia

2026-01-01