A Kid’s Guide to Building Great Communities: A Manual for Planners and Educators
Elisabeth Miller, MCIP and Mary Bishop, MCIP
Canadian Institute of Planners, 2002

A Kid’s Guide to Building Great Communities, an 89-page publication of the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP), is a compilation of exercises and activities derived from nonprofits, publications, and other sources. These activities introduce K-12 students to their community and the built environment.

The guide incorporates several ideas from the Center for the Understanding of the Built Environment (CUBE) and Toronto’s Cityplan ’91 planning process, which sought significant input from youth. It also contains four activities from “Community as a Learning Resource,” a teacher’s guide written and published by Ramona Mullahey and sponsored by APA.

Overall, the guide contains 34 exercises on diverse topics within community involvement, ranging from tried-and-true resources such as Kids City to more out-of-the-ordinary ones (“Graveyard as an Educational Tool,” for example). The exercises are supplemented by 14 appendices and an extensive list for further reading.

Chapters

Walk Around the Block
The Neighborhood You Live In
Places You Go in Your Community
Your Community, How it All Fits Together
Creating Better Communities with Kids