Claiming Our Space: #YouthInAction

Young people inherit the cities they didn’t design, but they’re the ones who walk them, ride them, cross them, and live with the consequences every day. This is what happens when that experience stops being background noise — and starts shaping decisions.

Claiming Our Space: #YouthInAction

Four cities. Four groups of young people who stopped accepting unsafe mobility as normal. In Bandung, Bogotá, Guadalajara and Tunis, a group of young people turned what they saw every day — a bus that never comes, a street with no safe crossing, a system that wasn’t built with them in mind — into evidence, into concrete proposals, and into a seat in the conversation with the people who make the decisions. This campaign tells those four stories, in the voice of the people who lived them.

These stories are part of the Youth Advocates project, supported by YOURS – Youth for Road Safety alongside the FIA Foundation, which equipped these young people with training, tools, and access to technical and institutional spaces to turn their experience into real advocacy.

TUNIS, TUNISIA

Dedicated Youth Seats in the City Road Safety Committee

Tunis’ Road Safety Committee had two seats reserved for civil society — but no clear path for youth to use them. Through a partnership between YOURS and ASR (Association Ambassadeurs de la Sécurité Routière), four young leaders trained in advocacy and public speaking stepped into those seats, engaging directly with the committee on the implementation of ‘Zone 30’ school zones. Today, they are youth advocates in the room. Their ambition: to become the ones making the decisions.

“Advocacy is not only about making demands from outside the room. It is also about learning how institutions work, preparing clear messages, and contributing constructively when the opportunity opens.” — Participant 1

Bogotá, Colombia

Keeping the Road Safe & Inclusive with New E-Vehicles

When Colombia approved Law 2486 of 2025 to regulate light electric vehicles, a group of Bogotá Youth Advocates saw a policy window most people would have missed. They researched the safety gaps facing cyclists, pedestrians and other vulnerable road users sharing space with e-bikes and e-scooters, and built a policy brief with technical and safety recommendations for the Ministry of Transport — bringing lived experience and technical knowledge into a regulation still being written.

“We’re not only road users anymore. We’re researchers. Advocates. People who can actually contribute to how policy gets written.” — Participant 1

GUADALAJARA, MEXICO

Can this Stressful Transfer Terminal Become a Joyful Public Space?

Central Nueva is one of Guadalajara’s busiest transfer hubs — and one of its most stressful public spaces. A group of young advocates went into the streets around it, asked daily commuters what felt unsafe, and turned those conversations into a phased policy brief for the municipality: safer crossings, shade, lighting, and a human-centred redesign of the CETRAM. Their proposal is now headed to a meeting with local decision-makers.

“Going into the field gave us confidence. We were not only saying, ‘we think this is a problem.’ We could say, ‘people who use this space are telling us this is a problem.'” — Participant 2

Bandung, INDONESIA

Keeping Angkot Systems Accessible for All

For students in Bandung, the daily angkot ride is becoming harder to rely on — and for many, that’s pushing them toward riskier transport options. A group of young advocates studied the system from the inside: riding the routes, talking to drivers, and identifying gaps between what students need and what the system provides. Their policy brief, “Revitalising Angkot for Students,” reframes public transport reform as a road safety, equity and education priority.

“Advocacy is not only about speaking loudly. It is also about listening carefully, documenting realities, and building evidence to influence change.” — Sana’, YOURS coach

Youth Advocates is a programme by YOURS

Youth for Road Safety, implemented in partnership with the FIA Foundation, that strengthens young people’s role in road safety and sustainable mobility decision-making. Working with 16 youth advocates across Bandung, Bogotá, Guadalajara and Tunis, the programme combined capacity building, coaching, evidence generation and stakeholder engagement to support young people in developing Youth Action Plans and advocating for locally relevant policy and implementation changes. By connecting youth lived experience with evidence and direct engagement with authorities, Youth Advocates created pathways for young people to move from participation to meaningful influence in shaping safer and more sustainable mobility systems.

Your Turn

Are you taking new action in your own city right now? Or have you been the one who opened a door? We want to hear your story, to inspire the thousands of young leaders tuning in.