Youth Engagement in Planning Nationwide: A Convening in New Orleans

(This article appeared in the Fall 2007 issue ofCommunity Investments Online, a publication of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Published here with permission.)

Over a hot late May week, young planners from around the nation convened as part of the Planners Network National Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. Twenty youth and adult allies came from Brooklyn, the Bay Area, and New Orleans to show just what can happen when students are provided with an opportunity to engage in urban planning efforts. Over the course of 4 days, participants learned about the current situation in New Orleans and brought their unique skills and perspectives to the question “How can New Orleans be rebuilt into a vibrant, economically and racially diverse city?”

While city planning practitioners and community development professionals often seek to include diverse constituents, particularly as a way to ensure equitable development across regions, they often overlook young people as key stakeholders in the community. But youth have a unique and important perspective on how cities function for its residents. Across the country, a number of organizations and programs are seeking to enhance young people’s civic participation, to fundamentally change city planning practice by integrating youth into public processes, and improve the educational system by integrating city planning and community development into school-based curricula.

Three such organizations joined together in New Orleans to grapple with the urban planning challenges facing the city after Hurricane Katrina. Students participating in the Y-PLAN program directed by the Center for Cities and Schools at UC Berkeley came to New Orleans after working on a real world planning project in Emeryville, where they had the opportunity to learn how to work with residents, community organizations, and city council. Three-thousand miles away, in Brooklyn, New York, students at the Academy of Urban Planning (AUP) had fine-tuned their urban planning and GIS skills through unique partnerships with community organizations, planning agencies, and local colleges and universities.

And down in the Big Easy, students at the O. Perry Walker Charter High School (Walker) have been collaborating with the non-profit, Communities In Schools of New Orleans, Inc (CISNO) to champion for connecting necessary community resources with schools to help young people successfully learn, stay in school, and prepare for life. The collaboration has spearheaded several successful initiatives for students, such as a youth leadership council that gives youth a voice during the city’s recovery. In partnership with Walker, CISNO has facilitated arts education, mass volunteer events, music performances, positive behavior support programming assistance, and professional development related to identifying trauma and building resilience.

Walker students acted as the hosts for this event, bringing their peers to New Orleans’s many distinct neighborhoods, including the French Quarter and the Lower Ninth Ward. This trip was both educational and emotional for participants, due to the intensity of this place and experiences that Walker students shared with the others. This was especially poignant when the students visited the Lower Ninth Ward and the site where the levies broke. Walker students shared their personal experiences of loss, relocation, and rebuilding. It was a powerful moment, as many of the young planners had never before left their native cities or met other young people with similar urban experiences to theirs.

The students quickly jumped into the planning challenge, bringing the skills that they have learned in their respective programs to bear in New Orleans. Building on Y-PLAN students’ experiences of working on client-driven projects, participants conducted a survey for the City of New Orleans Office of Recovery Management. In the Elysian Fields neighborhood of New Orleans, students walked door to door, assessing which units were re-occupied since Hurricane Katrina, and which remained vacant. Students also had the chance to speak with local residents and document their perspectives on the recovery efforts.

AUP students led a lesson on GIS at the University of New Orleans, where they discussed projects they had worked on documenting housing affordability issues in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and encouraged other students to examine their respective cities through this lens. And the Walker Youth Council invited their guests to a meeting to discuss their upcoming campaigns and work. Students and their adult allies also facilitated a participatory workshop at the Planners Network Conference entitled, “Youth Participation in Planning—Where do we Go from Here?” There was also time to socialize, at a spoken word recital by one student at the opening ceremony and a crawfish broil hosted by Walker High School.

At the end of the week, students left New Orleans with new relationships and with increased knowledge of urban planning skills and practice, knowledge that they will be able to apply back home in their own communities.

Ariel Bierbaum is the Program Manager at the Center for Cities & Schools, UC Berkeley. She manages the Y-PLAN program, as well as the broader Youth, Schools, and Planning Initiative, which includes professional development, capacity-building, and research around youth engagement in planning practice. Alissa Kronovet is a candidate in the Master of City Planning program at UC Berkeley and a research fellow with the Center for Cities & Schools. In addition to coordinating the New Orleans trip, Alissa is heading up the national organizing efforts around the Young Planners Network.