Improving education and cultivating civic agency through developing real world skills, practices, and partnerships.

Transportation provides access to all other arenas of life. Y-PLAN scholars suggest improvements to provide greater and more equitable connection, safety, dignity and opportunities.

California is facing an unprecedented housing crisis. Young people across the state feel its pressures, and they know how to help.

“How can you expect us to come up with solutions for revitalizing our community when we just lost everything?”

This year, fifth grade students at Verde Elementary School in North Richmond, California, took on a local “real world” challenge: How can we beautify the public spaces in our neighborhood while celebrating our community history and pride? Professional architects and planners engaged the students in a series of hands-on studio workshops using the Y-PLAN 5-step methodology in the spring. Then over the summer, 100 TOMODACHI Y-PLAN Japanese students also engaged in the Y-PLAN process as they focused on North Richmond. Inspired by the work of the younger local students, they generated a set of long-term and short-term recommendations about how the community might become more vibrant, creative, and connected. Within the framework of their long-term proposals, four groups of 25 students each also generated a plan to build out one small component of their vision during a Day of Action. Read more about the exciting connections made and actions students took in North Richmond!

This year, San Francisco students are informing two different city and regional planning agencies. The San Francisco Planning Department has committed to a long-term partnership with the Center for Cities + Schools to increase the voice of young people in citywide planning processes and policies. Meanwhile, San Francisco is also represented in our regional project with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Association of Bay Area Governments preparing for the schools of 2050. Read on to learn more.

A recap of the 2019 Symposium: The Power of Civic Learning for Resilient Cities at UC Berkeley in response to the 2017-2018 Y-PLAN Resilient by Design Youth Challenge

Elena Moore, a current sophomore at Swarthmore College, completed an externship with us in January. Supported by Swarthmore alum and our Assistant Director Mandy Eppley, Elena interviewed CC+S/Y-PLAN staff on the impact of last year's Y-PLAN Resilient by Design Youth Challenge - read on to learn more!

This year, CC+S entered into an exciting partnership with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Association of Bay Area Governments (MTC/ABAG) to generate youth insights, recommendations, and proposals to inform the Horizon initiative.

We are from East Palo Alto...