Enhancing Citizen Engagement at the Municipal Level: Youth’s Perspectives 27 Natasha Blanchet-Cohen and Juan Torres Contents Introduction ...................................................................................... 392 Conceptualizing Youth Citizenship ............................................................ 393 The Importance of the Municipal Level ........................................................ 394 The Child Friendly Cities Initiative ......................................................... 395 The Growing Up in Cities Canada .......................................................... 396 Youth’s Perspectives ............................................................................ 396 Reaching Out to Youth ...................................................................... 397 Creating a Collaborative Space ............................................................. 398 Using Appropriate Tools .................................................................... 400 Conclusion and Future Directions .............................................................. 401 Cross-References ................................................................................ 402 References ....................................................................................... 402 Abstract Despite evidence of the benefits of young people’s participation, civic youth engagement is limited mostly to youth representation on councils or committees. Drawing on action research in the Child Friendly Cities initiative and the Growing Up in Cities Canada program, this chapter calls for a broader definition of engagement that encompasses membership, rights, responsibilities, and equality of status. It considers that enhanced municipal engagement concretizes citizenship; municipalities need more knowledge and adapted tools if they are to provide young people with multiple dimensions of citizenship. There are three N. Blanchet-Cohen (*) Department of Applied Human Sciences, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada e-mail: natasha.blanchet-cohen@concordia.ca J. Torres Institut d’urbanisme, Universite ´ de Montre ´al, Montreal, QC, Canada e-mail: jj.torres.michel@umontreal.ca This chapter: # Crown Copyright 2015 Published by Springer Science+Business Media Singapore. All rights reserved. J. Wyn, H. Cahill (eds.), Handbook of Children and Youth Studies, DOI 10.1007/978-981-4451-15-4_62 391