Ellen Schindler

Partner & CEO at De Zwarte Hond | The Netherlands

What do youth participation and brushing teeth have in common? Well, Ellen Schindler will paint you a picture. As Partner and CEO at De Zwarte Hond she works towards a robust future that encourages young people to take responsibility for their urban living environment. To achieve this, she works on multi-layered education projects in the form of a book and various events. But it’s not only the youth who needs to take ownership: Ellen also calls out to cities and raises the question on how to involve the younger generation in its development – in a serious, concrete, and structural way. This requires an extensive change of mindset. Her upcoming “Young Optimistic Urbanists manifesto" should support cities in this and make collaborating with their youngsters “normal”, so genuinely everyone can be a city maker. The manifesto’s goal is to implement consulting the young generation as a standard procedure, which you don’t even have to think about anymore because it became so natural – just like brushing teeth. Something we don’t think about, something we just do.