Van Vliet

In 2005 a trailer slated for the dump was transported to Mapleton Mobile Home Park in Boulder and renovated there. Built by more than 50 CU Boulder students, the Trailer Wrap project held lessons for future project-based learning, including a CEDaR-led manufactured home renovation planned for this summer or fall, depending on the state of the pandemic.

For the past 12 years Growing Up Boulder was a part of CU Boulder's  Community Engagement, Design and Research (CEDaR) Center. Now one of the most successful child-friendly city initiatives in the world, GUB is transitioning to an independent nonprofit, a model for how the university can develop, nurture and then spin off nonprofit activities.

Growing Up Boulder and the city of Boulder, Colorado, are actively involving all stakeholders to make it a child- and youth-friendly city.

Professors Emeriti in CEDaR, Louise Chawla and Willem van Vliet, co-authored a chapter on “Children’s Rights to Child-friendly Cities," which was published in the latest edition of the Handbook of Children’s Rights (Routledge, 2017).