This past summer 2018, I hosted two one-day workshops in beautiful South Florida called The Future Black Planners of America Workshops. They took place at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL (Palm Beach County), and Mary Saunders Park in the City of West Park, FL (Broward County).  All together there were a total of 44 attendees for both workshops, all of whom were very much engaged and intrigued about the field of urban planning. 

 

During the workshop, the students that attended were taught about key information about the field of urban planning such as what is urban planning, where do urban planners work, how much do they make, which schools in Florida offer degrees in urban planning, and more. They were even taught the basics about zoning and land use and kids were placed into groups to work on a small activity related to land use. At both workshops, 5 planning professionals were present and each individual briefly spoke about their background in planning and how they got into the field. In the second part of the day, the students were grouped into 5 groups and placed with one of the planning professionals as their facilitator and worked on a parcel development project. The kids thoroughly enjoyed the project and they put together a proposal for a vacant piece of property in the cities of Boca Raton and West Park. The students then presented their proposals to the entire group. Each project was judged on set criteria and the individuals from the winning group from each workshop received a $25 gift card. At the conclusion of the workshop, each kid left with a community service hours certificate as well as giveaways (t-shirt, drawstring backpack, wristband, and a button pin). 

 

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