Children's Council to be established in five Dutch municipalities

The Dutch municipalities of Leiden, The Hague, Deventer, Groningen and Breda are all establishing a Children's Council in which the aldermen of these cities will actively work with the recommendations of kids. Princess Laurentien of the Missing Chapter Foundation and State Secretary Jetta Klijnsma of Social Affairs will kick off the test run for the Children's Councils on Tuesday, ANP reports.

Princess Laurentien launched the Missing Chapter Foundation six years ago to link children to companies. Now more than 80 companies have a Children's Council. These Councils advise companies on a range of topics, and the companies then decide what to do with the advice.

The idea is that the five participating municipalities work the same with their Children's Councils. The Councils will consist of upper primary school children.

State Secretary Klijnsma made agreements with municipalities on allowing children to help think about how the money in their community can best be spent. "A Children's Council can help enormously with that", she said, according to ANP .She also made an additional 100 million euros available to fight childhood poverty.