User:A1morales/Urban planning education

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'In the past centuries there have been very minimal efforts to include youth in urban planning decision processes. In recent years, however, there has been an increasing effort to expose youth to urban planning as a profession. In doing so, youth are able to be involved and lead planning processes. Most efforts have emphasized the importance of including youth from marginalized neighborhoods. '

The history of children and participatory planning
'One of the first attempts to involve children in urban planning in the United States was through an initiative, “Growing Up in Cities” created by urban designer Kevin Lynch via the United Nations. This program's mission was to expose urban planning to children and teenagers and give them the tools to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their own neighborhoods. This program was not successful because it lacked city government support. However, it paved the way for another initiative, “Child Friendly Cities Initiative” in 1989. This program shared a similar agenda in letting children conceptualize an ideal city that meets their needs.'

Jane Jacobs, a prominent urban activist and author of “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” was among one of the first to analyze the needs of children in the built environment. 'When thinking about participatory planning, there is debate on whether children and teenagers are stakeholders in city planning decisions. Jacobs argues that sidewalks should not dismiss the needs of children to play and be protected at the same time.'

Youth and urban planning education
'Historically, youth have not been given much political power in many processes. Because many urban planning processes have been top-down approaches, youth are more often than not excluded from these decisions. Besides some government initiatives in the late 20th century, urban planning as a profession is not very popular among youth.'

'In the decade, there have been many non-profit efforts to expose students to urban planning as a profession and field of study. For example, The Center for Understanding the built environment, otherwise known as, CUBE, brings together teachers and urban planners to create an accessible urban planning curriculum for children. The non-profit's innovative educational model promotes many learning results for students including responsible action.'

'Urban planning professors at the University of California, Berkeley also created an influential academic model named Y-PLAN, or, Youth–Plan, Learn, Act Now. This course engages UC Berkeley urban studies students with high school students from Richmond, California in efforts to transform their neighborhood and expose students to the urban planning process. '