Observe Program

The Center for the Living City, with support from the Ford Foundation, successfully expanded its groundbreaking Observe program for youth worldwide. Initially piloted in the United States, the program expanded to include participants in India and Bangladesh. It empowers young women to engage with their communities through civic action and creative expression.


A central goal of Observe has been to nurture civically engaged voices of young women, inspiring local and global action in the places they care about. Participants took part in a community-based patch program where they explored cities, honed observational skills, and amplified their voices through place-based creative action.

The program provided essential tools and skills to support the participants’ growth as change-makers. Women and girls often face barriers rooted in deeply ingrained societal misogyny, which can diminish or silence their voices. The Observe program sought to dismantle these barriers, enabling young women to address urgent challenges such as climate change, rapid urbanization, access to safe drinking water and sanitation, and food insecurity. Inspired by the legacies of impactful women like Jane Jacobs, participants were encouraged to reimagine inequalities and develop innovative responses to the problems they observed.


In one notable example, the 2017 Jane Jacobs Fellow, Kat Nix, collaborated with the Center to expand Observe globally. This work included partnerships with the Girl Scouts of the USA, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), and other international organizations to create and disseminate resources for the program. This fellowship was built on a successful pilot project with Girl Scout Troop 496 (Muslim Girl Scouts of Utah) in 2016.

The pilot project, led by University of Utah student Naba Faizi, introduced the girls to Jane Jacobs’ pioneering work through Glenna Lang’s book, Genius of Common Sense: Jane Jacobs and the Story of the Death and Life of Great American Cities. Jacobs’ life, from her early days as a Girl Scout in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to her groundbreaking influence on urban studies, inspired the participants to develop their observational skills.


Armed with these insights, the girls created individual Jane Jacobs Walks, showcasing their communities through unique perspectives. These walks highlighted aspects of their neighborhoods that sparked concern or joy, fostered a sense of history, or illuminated pressing issues like housing, mobility, food justice, and access to education. Participants proposed solutions to preserve, celebrate, heal, or transform their neighborhoods, paving the way for creative, actionable change.

By combining observation, analysis, and advocacy, the Observe program continues to cultivate a generation of young women equipped to lead their communities into a more equitable and sustainable future. 



Expanding on this program, we will be launching in fall 2025 a new OBSERVATION WRITERS LAB aimed at providing girls (grades 7-12) with hands-on experience in community observation and storytelling. This Observation Lab will help build critical thinking and leadership skills., encouraging civic responsibility in the next generation of community leaders. The program will be first launched in Northeast Pennsylvania thanks to special funding from the Scranton Area Foundation.

Any interested students, parents, or local educators are encouraged to contact our Program Director (Conor Kelly O’Brien) to learn more!

Additional Resources

Resources from Observe India and Observe Bangladesh also available. Don't hesitate to get in touch with our program director, Conor Kelly O'Brien

Observe! Patch Program

Observe! Resource Guide (Youth)

Observe! Resource Guide (Older Girl)

Observe! Resource Guide (Youth, Spanish)

Observe! Patch Program (Older Girl, Spanish)