Vocational School of Justice
CREATING CHILDREN-FRIENDLY SPACES
Büşra Olkun and Filiz Egi, students from Department of Sociology, Izmir University of Economics (IUE), came in third place at the ‘’Social Cooperative Train’’ titled project contest held by the Directorate General of Cooperative of Ministry of Trade. Olkun and Egi wanted to create “child-friendly” spaces for children at many locations such as parks, restaurants, bookstores, and hospitals so they can actively take part in life.
Olkun and Egi, who prepared a project for “Social Cooperative Hackaton” contest as part of the Social Cooperatives Education and Promotion Train activities, will be awarding the title of child-friendly spaces to institutions based on the criteria specified by a scientific board consisting of sociologists, psychologists, nutritionists, architects, and interior architects. Parents will find out about child-friendly spaces at cocukdostu.org web page and spend time with their children at these places with peace of mind.
Sociology student Büşra Olkun, who gave information about the project, said that they wanted number of child-friendly spaces to be increased, and hoped children would engage in social life more actively. Olkun also stated that they wanted to become a digital platform to families of low socioeconomic status by providing free counseling services. “After we started our project, we realized how few the child-friendly spaces were. The scientific board will visit enterprises, institutions and guide them on how to become child-friendly spaces. After the necessary adjustments are made, those institutions will be awarded the title of child-friendly spaces, and they will be posted on our website. Parents will be able to access these places with a filtering and mapping system for free, said” Olkun.