How often do you hear city parks resonating the joys of childhood? How often do you see children playing without any preoccupations? How often do you feel inhibited to let your child explore the neighborhood? These questions paint a poor picture of a lifetime that is spent without trust, bonding, respect, playfulness. The lack of confidence in cities prevents children from opportunities to explore, and thus comes in way of their growth and development. Absence of a mutual relationship between community and city stems from our perception about community engagement as mundane and irrelevant. It is also a derivative of limiting learning and development to school walls. If we continue to underestimate a community's potential to shape and nurture children as citizens, we will soon have a populace that is alienated from themselves and their neighborhood, their city, their country. Can we open up channels that create a sense of balance and safety in every child? Can we catalyse the process of taking learning beyond schools? Can we create avenues for 120 million children in India to live and learn without inhibitions? These questions evoke the need and possibilities of co-created frameworks that provide easy, cost-effective and replicable solutions for a safe neighborhood. Multiple interventions by increasing citizens engagement at a local level is a methodology that aProCh - a Protagonist in Every Child - initiated to channel, escalate and deliver these solutions. aProCh, an initiative started in 2007, is a manifestation of the need to integrate all the stakeholders of a child friendly city. OUR VISION We envision a safe and sustainable environment for children to play, explore and learn in their growing years. To fulfil the vision of aProCh, various initiatives were designed and implemented such as Parents of the Park, City on Cycles, Mov'ing experience, Street Smart and City as my Landscape. These initiatives provide multiple avenues for all children to explore with curiosity, engage in creativity and community while experiencing the joys of childhood. It aims at reclaiming spaces for children, bringing community together and promote safety & inclusion.

The whole idea of aProCh is based on collaboration and bringing community together for betterment of our children. We have partnered with around 40 schools and 40 NGOs in Ahmedabad so far, and information regarding the planned events is shared with all of them. This ensures that every event sees the participation of children from different communities and sections of the society, something important to see in the segmented society in which we live! It is an endeavor which aims to address a very significant and long term issue facing our cities and culture but it has done in such a way that all participants enjoy their roles and have fun while exercising their concerns and addressing issues. We have come up with various initiatives which are innovative in meeting these objectives: Parents of the Park: is an initiative where children will experience "childhood". It is a partnership between the city's volunteers and the Municipality. Once a week, the municipality offers the park exclusively for children. During this time children engage in activities that enable them to have positive childhood scripting. The activities are organized by the parents and citizens who live around the park area. Mov'ing Experience: Based on the same belief that whom much is given, much is expected. This initiative is designed to create awareness on two fronts: 1. Lauding the efforts of the various business houses towards ensuring that the city is creating childhood experiences / making the city child friendly made possible by allowing entries for fun activities. 2. Creating opportunity for street and underprivileged children to avail a going out experience, by asking business houses to commit to free or subsidized entry for movie, visit, food etc for street and underprivileged children. Street Smart: A fun filled initiative where main streets of the city close down for traffic and welcome children and the community to feel free and safe on the streets of Ahmedabad. Children have a chance to express, explore and satiate their curiosity while engaging in fun filled activities organized by 'aProCh' in partnership with other Ahmedabad Schools, AMC and Ahmedabad Traffic Police.

IMPACT aProCh has received continuous affirmation from all stakeholders regarding the positive impact of the different initiatives on the holistic development of children. An idea that was born at The Riverside School, Ahmedabad, India in 2007 today has spread across 10 cities and in Bangladesh & Mexico, impacting over 5,00,000 children. aProCh is the Runner-up of the prestigious Financial Times/Citi award and the Amex Serve2gether pro-bono award. Various articles are published on The Better India, Child in the City, Children and Nature Network and Citizen matters. We are hoping that the good will that aProCh has earned so far, would encourage the business and corporate houses of the city to help with the funding. You must understand that aProCh does not depend on monetary contributions as much as it depends on the volunteering spirit of the citizens to run each event.

We endeavor to create a momentum around rooting childhood experiences in a safe environment, and thus change the story of impressions children carry with them about their city, people and the relationship between the two. This calls for interventions for children, by children as they are crucial to urban planning and design. Moreover, both a scope and space for dialogues between policy makers, local governance, community, and most importantly children need to be cultivated for an authentic manifestation of local solutions. aProCh leader and coordinators takes the onus of creating a network of experts & volunteers such as the Police, City Administrators, Press & media, Local citizens, artists, magicians & sportsmen to facilitate smooth execution of various initiatives. Each program is well planned, executed, documented and reflected as team. Very importantly, aProCh inspired Schools, NGOs and corporates in many cities to come together with the spirit of collaboration and taking ownership of hosting the various activities and workshops. There is clear guideline document on How to take the initiative in your neighborhood or city. aProCh has completed 11 years now and the idea has travelled beyond the city of Ahmedabad. An idea that was born at The Riverside School in 2007 today has spread across 10 cities in India Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Anand, Baroda, Hyderabad, Jodhpur, Kolkata, Rajkot, Sangamner and Surat. Beyond our borders aProCh is now in Bangladesh & Mexico. Each cities has a lead partner, be it a school, NGO or voluntary group who conducts the activities and share the details with the aProCh team. Each year, there is a review meeting conducted where professionals from outside gives insight and suggestion for process and practices if any.

Municipal Corporation, Police, Educational Institutes, NGOs, Citizens, Business Houses