Louise Chawla gives opening speech for Strasbourg's Festival of Early Infancy

In February 2021, Louise Chawla, CEDaR fellow and professor emerita in the Program in Environmental Design, was invited to give an opening speech for a weeklong Festival of Early Infancy (birth to 6 year olds) in the city of Strasbourg, France on the topic of “Connecting Children with Nature to Foster Wellbeing and a Caring Relationship with the Natural World.” During the hour-long discussion that followed, the city’s deputy mayor was interested in learning about Growing Up Boulder, a partnership between CEDaR, Boulder’s city government, and the Boulder Valley School District to engage children and youth in city planning and design. Growing Up Boulder projects include young children in elementary schools and preschools. The festival was organized by the Academy of Early Infancy and the Terra Symbiosis Foundation in Strasbourg, with the aim of inspiring the greening of child care, preschool and elementary school grounds and encouraging greater use of the city’s parks by early childhood institutions and families with young children.