Roger Hart, internationally known for bringing the voices of children and youth to environmental and community planning tables, will give a free public talk tonight, April 25, at 7:30 in Martha Van Rensselaer Auditorium. The topic: "Children and the Making of Civil Society: Rethinking the Democratic Development of Young Citizens."
Hart is co-director of the Children's Environments Research Group, a non-profit organization supporting low-income residents in neighborhoods in New York City and throughout the Third World to redesign living environments so that they nurture growth and creativity for children and their families. Also a professor of environmental psychology at the City University of New York, Hart is particularly known for his work to foster community by involving children and families in community gardens.
Campus and community members are also invited to attend these free events:
Hart is active in the Children's Gardens Program of the American Horticultural Society. In addition to producing UNICEF's handbook on children's participation in community development, he has advised the U.S. Forest Service on children's use of natural places in metropolitan areas; and spearheaded an action research project sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Environmental Protection Agency that involved children and teens in environmental planning and management. His publications include Managing Cities as If Children Mattered (1998), Democratic Processes with Children (UNICEF, 1997), and Children's Participation: The Theory and Practice of Involving Youth Citizens in Community Development and Environmental Care (UNICEF, 1997).
Hart's visit is being coordinated by the Level Green Institute, a new Ithaca-based non-profit organization fostering community through campus/community collaborations, educational programs and the arts. For further information, contact Patricia Haines 273-5018 or ph24@cornell.edu.
Support for Hart's visit is being provided at Cornell by: the departments of Design and Environmental Analysis, Human Development and Family Studies, Rural Sociology, and Education; the Community and Rural Development Institute; Public Service Center; Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy; Office of the Vice Provost for Land Grant Affairs; the Family Life Development Center's HIV/AIDS Education Project; Camel Breeders; and Cornell Participatory Action Research Network.
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