Co-Directors: Roger Hart and Pamela Wridt
Tel. 212 817-1887 (Roger Hart) 212 817-1902 (Pamela Wridt)
Email: roghart@gmail.com and Pwridt@gc.cuny.edu
Website: http://cergnyc.org/

The Children's Environments Research Group (CERG), provides an important link between university scholarship and the development of design, policy and programs that both improve the quality of environments for children and enhance children's interaction with them. CERG assists in the design and redesign of children's environments and strives to encourage programs that foster more dynamic and empowering relationships between children and the environment. CERG is a part of the Center for Human Environments at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and collaborates closely with the other subgroups of this research consortium.

CERG's training and professional expertise extends across theory and basic research on children's relationship to the physical environment, through architectural programming and design evaluation for children, to the collaborative design of prototypical environments for special populations of children, and to new environmental education programs and policy development concerning children's environments. Although we are open to working with all clients, we are particularly interested in supporting the efforts of low-income communities. Through our work with children in community groups and schools in New York City, we have pioneered approaches to the participation of children in research on their own lives and on the environment.

While CERG has often concentrated its applied research efforts in the low-income neighborhoods and schools of New York City, in recent years it has also increased its collaboration with international children's agencies, including UNICEF and the Save The Children Alliance, in interpreting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and in planning and management projects for cities in South Asia, Central Asia, and Latin America. CERG is also a partner in the Childwatch International Research Network, an international coalition of child rights research organizations.

Major projects currently underway at CERG include:

• The Article 15 Project. An international project supporting children's right to self-organize and fulfill their rights, as enunciated in Article 15 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The project has worked with children's groups in Latin America, South Asia, and West Africa, and offers toolkits and support on its website:

  http://www.crc15.org/

• The Child Friendly Communities Project. An international project designed to implement children's participatory community assessment and planning initiatives. With support from the Bernard van Leer Foundation (The Netherlands), this project is focusing on activities in India and Brazil; a description of the Indian work can be accessed here:

  http://web.gc.cuny.edu/che/CFCMumbaiInfo.pdf