L.A. High Schoolers Learn about Planning and Social Equity at UCLA
What is spatial justice? Who makes decisions about how a city is planned? How can residents be empowered to be agents of change in their communities?
These questions and more were the topic of the 4th annual Urban Planning Youth Empowerment Conference at the University of California, Los Angeles on May 6.
The conference, which was organized by UCLA’s Planners of Color for Social Equity, brought more than 200 students from the East Los Angeles Renaissance Academy - School of Urban Planning and Design to campus for a full day of planning workshops led by graduate students from UCLA’s Urban and Regional Planning Program.
The wide array of speakers at workshops and discussion sessions covered top-of-mind planning issues: active transportation, spatial justice, sustainability, and urban design. Workshop leaders encouraged the high school students to think critically about issues of equity in planning and to work toward promoting equitable growth in their own communities.
In recognition of its public outreach efforts as a planning student organization, PCSE received an Outstanding PSO Award honorable mention at APA’s 2016 National Planning Conference in Phoenix.