Cold Feet

Every so often I get cold feet about Italy because there's a lot of things I'm missing out on at Cal, and this is one of them:

CP 290b/190a
Neighborhood Planning with Youth and Schools: The Y– PLAN

Course control #: 13571
Time: Monday 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM and 1 hour/week of teaching at high school site for 10 weeks
Location: Wurster Hall, Rm. 214b
Instructor: Deborah McKoy, PhD debmckoy@berkeley.edu, Wurster Rm. 324

The 2008 Y-PLAN Project: This course is an exciting opportunity to work with local Bay Area policy makers and educational leaders to connect the efforts of regional planners in West Contra Costa County with local high schools in Richmond. Local leaders, including Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, the West Contra Costa County Transportation Advisory Committee (WCCTAC), and city officials in El Cerrito and Richmond, have requested that Y-PLAN assist them in constructing a meaningful role for youth and public schools to transform San Pablo Avenue into a family-friendly, vibrant corridor.

Overview: The Y-PLAN (Youth – Plan, Learn, Act, Now) is an interdisciplinary course and an award winning initiative where students in urban planning, design, education, and other related disciplines learn how to engage youth as genuine stakeholders and participants in local planning projects. After an initial teaching preparation phase, UCB students work side-by-side with high school students for ten weeks teaching them fundamentals of community development by engaging in real world planning projects. Readings and seminar discussions focus on theoretical tools in participatory planning and teaching, complementing the practical application.

UCB students ("mentors") will gain proficiency in:

• Applying core planning principles of community and economic development and land use planning, while emphasizing the mobilization of community and the creation of an informed citizenry
• Mentoring youth in conducting physical, economic, and social analyses of their community
• Teaching and communicating ideas effectively

In this course, UCB students will mentor high school students to:

• Conduct community based research along the San Pablo Avenue Corridor
• Develop a community/regional plan for WCCTAC and local planning processes in El Cerrito and Richmond
• Present a final multimedia proposal to project clients detailing the youth findings and proposals

** No prior city planning experience necessary!**

Requirements:

• Participate in Monday seminar discussions, lesson planning, and project development
  • Work collaboratively in teams to prepare weekly activities by building/modifying existing curriculum
• Fieldwork for one hour/week at regularly scheduled times TBD, based on CP290B student schedules
• Participate in on-line journaling
• Final reflection paper (10 pages)

Questions? Email Ariel Bierbaum, Project Coordinator at arielb@berkeley.edu
http://citiesandschools.berkeley.edu