Diversity in Practice

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

• How to incorporate various social determinants of inequality — and metrics used to effectively gauge vulnerability and need — into planning, design, and policy-development processes
• How to use culturally competent outreach methods and data-driven approaches for effective decision-making from a multi-disciplinary perspective inclusive of planning, architecture/interior design, and public health
• How to challenge the traditional sense of normalcy and implicit bias in planning and design processes for more equitable, inclusive, and culturally competent outcomes

MORE SESSION DETAILS

This session showcases three successful multi-disciplinary design and planning processes (city planning, interior design, and public health) that used data-driven and culturally competent approaches. It will address the realities of changing demographics that require planning and design professionals to work from a baseline of racial and cultural competence. Participants will hear about the efforts of CAMPO (in Texas) to conduct a vulnerability analysis and public outreach as part of the active-transportation planning process; the Productive Collisions project, an architectural/interior design process that considered socio-environmental sustainability to create respectful and relevant community spaces; and Air Alliance Houston’s inclusive outreach process regarding the disproportionate siting of concrete-batch plants in low-income areas and communities of color within a mostly unzoned region. The session will end with questions from the audience and a group discussion about cultural competence and planners' ethical obligation to “seek social justice.”