Between August 2007 and January 2008, Safer Cities Dar es Salaam and the International Centre for Sustainable cities conducted a community asset mapping project on youth services in the City of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. This participatory identification of Youth Services in 15 different wards in Dar es Salaam engaged approximately 65 youth in identifying their personal assets, discussing common youth needs for living in Dar es Salaam, and mapping examples of youth services that met these types of needs. This process has produced a series of directories of youth assets, the Dar es Salaam Youth City Guides, including maps created by the youth involved, and contact and service information that they gathered.

In August of 2007, the International Center for Sustainable Cities sent a CIDA-funded intern to Dar es Salaam for six months to work with the UN-Habitat Safer Cities Dar es Salaam Program to enhance the involvement of youth in decision making and in planning strategies for the city of Dar es Salaam. The intent was to use the participatory and inclusive process of Community Asset Mapping to engage youth in dialogue about their communities.

This project was a confluence of the needs and desires of three parties: the youth involved, Safer Cities, and Sustainable Cities. Safer Cities aims to support local governments to address urban security issues through multi-stakeholder partnerships and the engagement of marginalized populations, such as youth. Safer Cities believe that when youth are engaged with their communities, in NGOs, and in income generating groups as peer educators, they are less likely to commit crimes and remain idle. Sustainable Cities works to support local governments to integrate multiple perspectives into the long-term planning process in order to enhance the sustainability of a city, including those of youth.

The youth in Dar es Salaam involved in this project consider the absence of forward thinking and limited youth service provision as barriers to their development. Based on an examination of current tasks being pursued in the Safer Cities Dar es Salaam project, particularly the establishment of the UN-Habitat Youth One Stop Center , the initiation of an asset mapping project that would produce a Youth City Guide of youth services fitted the needs of the three parties involved most appropriately. The Youth Asset Mapping project was structured around the ideas of promoting sustainability and safety through youth networking, information access, and dialogue on youth services.

This project resulted in the engagement of 65 youth in the production of three youth guides for the wards of Temeke, Ilala and Kinondoni in Dar es Salaam. These guides were printed and distributed to youth participants and are available through Safer Cities and the One Stop Youth Centre in Dar es Salaam. As follow-up to this project, Kinondoni Youth Mayor Steven Mlambo traveled to Nanjing, China to the UN Habitat World Urban Forum in November 2008 to present the asset mapping project as a tool for youth engagement.