Letham's children co-create plans to make it the best place to grow up

Love Letham is bringing people together to develop a plan to make Letham, Perth, the best place it can be for children and young people to grow up in.

The pioneering project is supporting children, young people, families, the wider community and organisations like Perth & Kinross Council to work together to create a shared local vision of what children and young people need to flourish, as well as a plan to deliver it.

By bringing children and communities together with decision makers we’re creating a shared roadmap that captures what matters most to people. Love Letham is a collaboration between the Wellbeing Economy Alliance Scotland and Perth & Kinross Council. It is in keeping with the Perth & Kinross Offer - the Council’s commitment to draw on the strengths and assets of individuals and communities and work together so everyone in Perth and Kinross can live life well. The project is supported by Northern Star and is funded by the Cattanach Trust, Partners for a New Economy and Robert Bosch Foundation.

First, we engaged with hundreds of children, young people and families in the area to find out what wellbeing meant to them. We used creative exercises like ‘magic carpet rides’ so that even very young children could take part. Then we recruited two diverse Commissions - one for adults and young people and another for primary aged children while we worked through a local group for teenagers to ensure all ages were involved. Both separately and together these Commissions have been analysing the data gathered from conversations in the community and identifying priorities for action. We’ll publish the learnings and recommendations from the project this December.

This pioneering project is working alongside similar pilots in California, Canada and New Zealand. All of these initiatives are implementing the Wellbeing Economy Alliance's Policy Design Guide which helps people think through how to create transformative policies with the full participation of citizens. It is also informed by the report by WEAll's Dr Katherine Trebeck on Building Budgets for Children’s Wellbeing.