APA's Community Assistance Program provides place-based assistance and advisory services to communities, regions, and neighborhoods. The program engages planning professionals and demonstrates the benefits of planning to communities around the country.
The American Planning Association participates in a variety of projects and programs that provide direct support to communities. These range in scope from the free resources offered by APA’s website, to the Planning Advisory Service to Community Planning Assistance Teams and international assistance.
Community assistance also includes efforts of APA chapters and divisions, such as the City Planning & Management Division's planning department peer review program and APA chapters' support of CPATs.
Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California
April 2012
The largely Latino Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles suffers from a lack of healthy food choices. The City of Los Angeles prohibits street vendors and therefore limits one option for providing affordable healthy and easily accessible food for its urban neighborhoods. The 2012 Community Planning Workshop — Green Carts in Boyle Heights — is designed to address this issue head on, with participation from local community leaders and advocates.
Programs and activities within the Community Assistance Program have several characteristics in common. They:
This CAP Training Webinar is intended for professional planners, community organizers, and citizens interested in community planning. AICP members will gain a more nuanced set of skills related to organizing and participating in community workshops and other public engagement strategies. Viewers will also learn effective ways of participating in public forums by developing new ways of eliciting input and important feedback from residents and stakeholders.
APA's website, www.planning.org, contains thousands of pages of information about the planning profession and best-practice resources. While much of this information is free for the general public, additional resources (such as access to Planning magazine's archives) are restricted to APA's members.
APA's Planning Advisory Service is a community of planners — the kind of neighbors who don't mind sharing the contents of their toolbox. PAS subscribers are a click or a call away from the best practices and innovative solutions they need to get the job done.
As part of the National Planning Conference, the American Institute of Certified Planners sponsors the Community Planning Workshop, a one-day event that engages community leaders, citizens, and guest planners in discussing and proposing specific solutions to urban planning challenges.
Through Community Planning Assistance Teams, top experts from APA's membership volunteer their time and expertise to work with communities on a variety of focused planning projects around the United States.
APA members and their organizations provide leadership in addressing many planning issues on a global scale. Often, challenges and successes cross geographic, national, and institutional borders. For decades, APA and its members have been providing technical assistance, training, and building capacity for the planning profession throughout the world, from China to Brazil, and beyond.
For more information on APA's Community Assistance Program, please contact CAP@planning.org.
©Copyright 2012 American Planning Association All Rights Reserved