Neighbourhood safety from a youth perspective

In partnership with the Amsterdamse Jongerenwerk Academie, Uit De Marge launched a new European project in March: COSY (Community Safety through Youth Participation at local level).

The COSY project is about recognising young people’s behaviour and reframing it as meaningful signals. These signals are then turned into suitable initiatives and workable policy, with the aim of making neighbourhoods feel safer.

With this approach, the project looks at a series of questions about safety, with the focus on what young people are signalling:

• Are young people hanging around a threat to public order, or are they the ones under threat, because they are constantly challenged about how they use public space?
• Do frequent identity checks make a neighbourhood safer, or do they create a climate of insecurity among young people and residents?
• Is dropping out of school a sign that young people are choosing the margins of society, or is it a result of feeling unsafe, failing and being excluded?
• And are riots only a threat to public order, or are they also a signal from young people who want recognition in society?

Together with young people, local authorities and civil society organisations, COSY will explore these different perspectives. By bringing them together, the project aims to help build a shared sense of safety.

The project runs from March 2026 to March 2028. It is part of the European CERV programme, which supports initiatives that strengthen democracy, equality, fundamental rights and civic participation.