Last Tuesday, after 3 weeks of laborious preparation, four students from the City of Coachella found themselves rehearsing as they traveled to the City of Ontario where they were scheduled to speak during the National 2015 Partners for Innovative Communities (PIC) Conference. Nervous but excited, Karla Martinez , Alejandra Rodriguez, Jatzel Garcia and Richard Tapia shared with a lively audience what they learned through their involvement with the award-winning Land Use Planning Awareness (LUPA) project.
During the breakout session entitled, “Building Healthy Communities through Land Use Planning Awareness”, they walked the audience through a series of slides highlighting how to use critical thinking skills to solve community problems and also about the basic components of city planning. After sharing their CVLink photovoice and an overview of what LUPA is all about, the youth lead the audience through an interactive art activity in which 5 teams drew their ideal communities on butcher paper. The session concluded with a robust conversation about the 5 different designs and how they incorporated health considerations into each of the team’s concepts.
Mario Saucedo, Chairman for the North Redlands Visioning Committee and the Common Vision Coalition, who attended the session, commended the youth for their participation in the LUPA Project and for their dedication to make the eastern Coachella Valley a healthier place to live.
Not many high school students would volunteer one of their summer days to share their experience at an innovation conference, but this dedicated group of students was eager to take on the challenge. The LUPA team is proud of them for their dedication and hard work. They added value to the PIC conference which draws hundreds of attendees each year. They all come together from across the nation to gain useful information, to identify valuable resources and to learn from innovators who share tools for community empowerment like Karla, Alejandra, Jatzel and Richard.
During the breakout session entitled, “Building Healthy Communities through Land Use Planning Awareness”, they walked the audience through a series of slides highlighting how to use critical thinking skills to solve community problems and also about the basic components of city planning. After sharing their CVLink photovoice and an overview of what LUPA is all about, the youth lead the audience through an interactive art activity in which 5 teams drew their ideal communities on butcher paper. The session concluded with a robust conversation about the 5 different designs and how they incorporated health considerations into each of the team’s concepts.
Mario Saucedo, Chairman for the North Redlands Visioning Committee and the Common Vision Coalition, who attended the session, commended the youth for their participation in the LUPA Project and for their dedication to make the eastern Coachella Valley a healthier place to live.
Not many high school students would volunteer one of their summer days to share their experience at an innovation conference, but this dedicated group of students was eager to take on the challenge. The LUPA team is proud of them for their dedication and hard work. They added value to the PIC conference which draws hundreds of attendees each year. They all come together from across the nation to gain useful information, to identify valuable resources and to learn from innovators who share tools for community empowerment like Karla, Alejandra, Jatzel and Richard.