Minneapolis becomes 2nd US city named 'Child Friendly City' by UNICEF

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Minneapolis has been named a "Child Friendly City" by the United Nations Child Funds (UNICEF) for its efforts to improve the lives of its youngest residents. 

The designation is part of the nonprofit Child Friendly Cities Initiative (CFCI), which was launched in 2020 and "aims to improve the safety and inclusion of children and young people, their meaningful participation, and access to equitable social services, safe and healthy living environments, play and leisure opportunities," according to UNICEF. 

Minneapolis is only the second city in the United States to be named a "Child Friendly City," putting it just behind Houston, Texas, which received the designation in 2023. 

It is not an easy process for the city to achieve, and it has been in the works for years. It comes down to the local action plan that Minneapolis leaders came up with in 2020 when they aimed to get this sort of recognition. UNICEF looks at four different areas of that action plan: emergency preparedness, youth in government, community safety, and child rights.

The President and CEO of UNICEF USA, Michael Nyenhuis, is a Minnesota native, and he says Minneapolis has been a forerunner in thinking about the rights and well-being of children. 

"It goes all the way back to your former Mayor [Donald] Frasier, who put child rights on the agenda for Minneapolis and embraced the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is the largest, the most ratified human rights treaty in the world," explained Nyenhuis. "The mayor embraced it at that time, and there are child rights champions in civil society, and within the government in Minneapolis, that we're excited to be partnered with."

Nyenheis says this designation doesn't mean that the work to put children at the center is over, but more so, recognizes that this city is committed to improving the lives and well-being of children in the community and making our youth a priority.