AN URBAN RESPONSE TO COVID-19: SUPPORTING BABIES, TODDLERS, AND THOSE WHO CARE FOR THEM

Abstract

A million new neural connections are formed every second in a baby's brain. These connections lay the foundations of their lifelong development, and are shaped by the amount and quality of care they receive from their primary caregivers, and by their immediate environment. To protect their health and limit negative consequences from COVID-19 on their long-term development, cities need to tailor their COVID-19 response to the needs of babies, toddlers, and their caregivers. The COVID-19 pandemic affects babies and toddlers in cities by making it harder for their caregivers - most often their parents - to access their regular support systems, due to closures of services and key infrastructure such as parks, mobility restrictions, or isolation from the community. Cities can actively support caregivers through a range of solutions allowing remote access, or adapting infrastructure, services, and facilities to ensure safe in-person access to key services and urban spaces. This does not always require new solutions, but rather a systematic consideration of their needs into existing interventions. To do so, cities can combine empathy methods with data about families, and use those when assessing the situation, and then locating and designing their urban response to COVID-19.