Edutopia - October/November 2008 - (Page 55)

“Without doing Y-PLAN, I don’t think many students would have been exposed to those professions or even known that they exist.” budgets are chronically tight, many of the larg- advocate for themselves in a civic space. Even er, more hopeful suggestions had little chance though it’s just a semester, from what I’ve seen, of coming to fruition in the near term, but the I think the kids hold on to that.” presentations nevertheless had a revelatory and empowering effect. “Seeing what they want for themselves Many students do hold onto the experience— has been an honor,” says Emery participating and not just symbolically. As Y-PLAN introduces them to a spectrum of employment opportuniteacher Madenh Hassan. “Y-PLAN is a good opportunity for us, be- ties in urban development, planning, politics, cause we can actually speak our minds,” says and administration, some pursue related caself-assured Emery student Chantell Brown. reers, many at UC Berkeley. “Without doing YShe hopes the Emeryville center will be, among PLAN, I don’t think many students would have other things, a safe place where young people been exposed to those professions, or would can go after school—something teens in low- even have known they exist,” says Center for income, high-crime communities desperately Cities & Schools deputy director Jeff Vincent. need. She was eager to tell developers, educa- Although the university is a local resource for tors, and city administrators “what the ‘real’ these students, some do not see prestigious UC is, what we see every day, what we have to go Berkeley—or any college—as a real possibility. Y-PLAN, which includes a tour of the Berkeley through.” “Sometimes adults don’t take us seriously,” campus and tips on the admissions process, adds her classmate, Yesenia Cuatlatl. “Y-PLAN helps make college a more accessible option. Y-PLAN has also had ripple effects nationis a good idea because sometimes we say, ‘Oh, they really need to change this,’ but we don’t do wide: From 2000 to 2005, the Center for Cities & Schools worked with the U.S. Department anything; we just talk about it.” Judging from the enthusiasm of their audi- of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) ence, the students’ work—and the determina- to adapt the Y-PLAN model to HOPE VI, a public-housing-retion that went with it— AUDIOSLIDE SHOW development initiahelped adults take them STREET BEAT tive. In partnership very seriously indeed. As For more about the spring 2008 with thirty-seven Bill Lindsay told students, Y-PLAN student projects, visit edutopia.org/y-plan-slide-show cities and more “If you ever want to talk than 500 students, about city management Y-PLAN coordinators led multiple-day “urbanas a long-term goal, please give me a call.” Y-PLAN is transformative, says Ariel Bier- planning boot camps,” creating, says Deborah baum, for both the audience (civic leaders and McKoy, “a national network of youth who live urban planners) and for the young presenters, in public housing, and who then were a part of who “gain facility with a new vocabulary and the redevelopment of their communities.” And in 2007, Alissa Kronovet, a former Y-PLAN mentor and graduate of the city planning master’s program at UC Berkeley, gathered students from both coasts to form the Young Planner’s Network (YPN)—what McKoy refers to as “advanced Y-PLAN”—an opportunity for students to attend planning conferences and network with students from other cities across North America. The YPN was created after Kronovet and an initial group of ⇒fteen students from the Bay Area and Brooklyn met and worked with students from New Orleans at last year’s Planners Network Conference. Participants were eager to continue learning, meeting one another, and, as YPN participant and Emery student Deszeray Williams puts it, “make a career out of helping make my community a better place.” In April 2008, 100 people attended the ⇒rst YPN conference, held in New York City, and a conference is scheduled in Berkeley for next spring. Now that the program has been running for almost a decade, Center for Cities & Schools staffers have put together a “Y-PLAN Handbook,” a step-by-step guide available to the center’s school and community partners. Although Y-PLAN is a labor- and resourceintensive undertaking, its founders have high hopes for its scalability—and, ultimately, for sustained, systemic change in communities and schools. It’s a daunting task, of course, but the Y-PLAN approach embraces one key idea: Start with the kids. “Even though we may not say it, we care about our community as much as adults do,” says student Chantell Brown. “We did Y-PLAN so that we could have a voice.” e Ripple Effects EDUTOPIA.ORG EDUTOPIA 55 http://www.edutopia.org/y-plan-slide-show http://www.EDUTOPIA.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Edutopia - October/November 2008

Edutopia - October/November 2008 Contents UpFront Feedback Dispatches Sage Advice Ask Ellen Head of Class Cool Schools Design: Lessons from the Mall The Bucks Start Here Go Global: Virgil Rocks Big Ideas: Powerful Learning Mapping Their Futures Heart & Soul Pop Quiz: Suze Orman

Edutopia - October/November 2008

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