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Engaged Opportunity Grants

Creating Age-Friendly Roman Neighborhoods

Assessing build environments and interviewing residents to create recommendations for more child- and age-friendly neighborhoods in Rome.

City planning has traditionally focused on the needs of working-age adults, typically assumed to be men, and insufficient attention has been given to the needs of children, elders and their caregivers. As Italian society ages and birth rates remain below replacement level, there is a critical need for more inclusive planning. This project focuses on understanding what makes city environments friendlier for these neglected groups. Students assess the built environments and work with community partners to elicit residents’ input on key issues in four peripheral Roman neighborhoods. The students present their findings to neighborhood leaders and Roman planners.

Their results are also presented at the Biennale of Public Space, which brings together Italian academic planners, neighborhood leaders and government planners to discuss approaches to public space in Rome, and in Ithaca, NY to a similar group of planners from upstate New York. The Ithaca event is co-sponsored by the Southern Tier Section of the New York Upstate Chapter of the American Planning Association. A special issue of the Italian journal, Quaderno Urbanistica, is devoted to the students’ work.

Grant category: Other

Topics: Access, Equity and Justice; Arts, Communication, Media and Design; Children, Youth, Seniors and Families; Law, Government and Policy

The Team

  • Mildred Warner, Department of City and Regional Planning

    College of Architecture, Art and Planning

  • Gregory Smith, Cornell in Rome

    College of Architecture, Art and Planning

  • Community partner:  Generazione Urbana
  • Community partner:  Biennale dello Spazio Pubblico

In The News

NOVEMBER 9, 2017
Student work in Italy and upstate N.Y. informs intergenerational communities
– Cornell Chronicle

Related Links

Cornell in Rome: Rome Neighborhood Studies

The Rome Workshop: Building Child and Age Friendly Communities: Lessons from Rome…for New York City


Engaged Opportunity Grants

Supporting a wide range of community-engaged learning projects, from student leadership programs and partnership building to events and conference travel. Open to all faculty and staff.

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