With Youth and StudentsNational Community Planning Month offers innumerable opportunities to educate young people about the role planning has played in shaping their neighborhood, town or city, and surrounding region — and also to engage them in thinking of ways planning can make these places even better. Work with K-12 SchoolsThere are so many entry points in the K-12 curriculum where planning topics, processes, and tools can be used to help teachers meet the learning objectives they have set for their students. Work with students and show them that their actions and ideas can help shape their community now. Reach Out to Youth GroupsTap the insights of young people as part of established planning processes, by making contact with youth organizations that may be interested in the educational and service opportunities afforded by National Community Planning Month. Involve the CommunityNational Community Planning Month provides a great opportunity to draw attention to raise the visibility of planning in your community.
ResourcesZineResourcesZine is APA's Youth and Planning Resource Center. It is a free online database featuring ideas for teaching young people about planning. Kids and CommunityThis site is especially for kids themselves. It's a place where they can learn what planners do, post their own work, and learn about wonderful children's books that feature different communities. Youth Planning Charrettes
This book contains a wealth of good advice about how to involve children from kindergarten through eighth grade in planning through the use of charrettes or design workshops. Other ResourcesThe YouthPower GuideThrough the youth arts program, El Arco Iris, youth in Holyoke, Massachusetts have designed and painted local murals, renovated park spaces, developed their own community maps, and served as the leaders of neighborhood planning workshops. The YouthPower Guide: How to Make Your Community Better is a manual based on the program's success. Written for use with young people ages 10 to 19 in an after-school setting, the guide contains 24 activities and a framework for developing new projects. Green Map SystemThe Green Map System (GMS) is a locally adaptable, globally shared framework for environmental mapmaking. It invites design teams to map their community. The site also has a special section devoted to "Youth Mapmakers" with an activity guide for school or after-school use. | ||
