Forming Authentic Civic Partnerships While Creating Joyful, Equitable Cities

Berkeley Y-PLAN (Youth-Plan, Learn, Act, Now!) connects faculty, undergraduate and graduate mentors at the University of California, Berkeley, with young people in public schools. Together they tackle challenges posed by city leaders in their communities. Using the Y-PLAN educational strategy, children and youth engage in city planning and design projects focused on four areas of the civic domain: transportation, housing, public space, and schools/services. In the process, young people use their personal experiences and fresh insights to improve their neighborhoods and cities, while civic leaders are challenged to integrate those perspectives into civic policies and practices. This chapter shines a spotlight on elementary school children who respond eagerly when adults ask them to engage in the challenges of climate change and sea-level rise. Using the Y-PLAN five-step methodology, the students learn about and use professional tools to grapple with tough issues. They then study innovative best practices, and generate recommendations for how to respond to those challenges. With the support and scaffolding of adults and university mentors this case study shows that elementary age students are capable of being powerful agents of design and policy change, moving their community affirmatively toward justice and joy for everyone.