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TheĀ Childrenās Environments Research GroupĀ (CERG) linksĀ university scholarship with the development of policies, environments, and programs to fulfill childrenās rights and improve the quality of their lives. There are two major strands to CERGās work. The first is a broad concern withĀ the fulfillment of childrenās rights. The second is a more specific focus on theĀ planning, design and management of childrenās physical environments. Following the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,Ā CERGās work addresses children of all ages from birth to eighteenĀ and also works a great deal with what some countries call āyouthā.
OurĀ researchĀ focuses onĀ understanding childrenās lives and the conditions that influence them, with the goal of changing those conditions. To that end, we are equally concerned with the development ofĀ theory,Ā policy, andĀ practice.Ā
CERG has aĀ focus on children living in povertyĀ and inĀ low-income communities, both in New York City and overseas. We are part of Childwatch, and we conduct much of our international work in partnership with this international network of child rights research organizations.
We have a particular commitment and expertise toĀ understanding childrenās own perspectives on their lives. Because of the particular backgrounds of our members, much of our research focuses on understanding childrenās relationship to the physical environment and how we can use this knowledge to influence environmental policy, planning and design but this is gradually broadening as we partner with other groups. We have a number of primary, but overlapping, areas of concern: