In partnership with Building Healthy Communities Eastern Coachella Valley (BHC ECV) and the UC Davis Center for Regional Change, the LUPA team will introduce the “world” of land use planning to a selected group of youth on July 23, 2015 at the Libray in Mecca, CA. The three-hour workshop will include a walking expedition around the library. The students will have an opportunity to test the Walkability Assessment Checklist (WAC) developed by the County of Riverside Department of Public Health (DOPH). DOPH will use this tool as part of the implementation of its Active Transportation Program (ATP) Cycle 1 grant around schools in the cities of Indio and Perris, CA.
About two weeks ago, LUPA's team member Miguel A. Vazquez, borrowed LUPA's traveling art exhibit for a day to create a conversation around land use planning with his son's 3rd grade class. The three giant boxes, painted by LUPA students from Coachella Valley High School, were part of Ms. Perez's career day at Alcott Elementary in Riverside, CA. Read this article to learn how they were incorporated into a fun planning activity. 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. The LUPA team is thrilled with the news that LUPA has been selected as the American Planning Association California Chapter (APA CA) 2015 Award of Excellence recipient for Community Outreach. This award recognizes outstanding achievement in the planning field and honors innovative plans and projects, distinguished APA members, lay contributors to planning and achievements of local APA California Sections. The award will be presented during the APACA State Conference that will take place October 4, 2015 in the City of Oakland.
To learn more about the award please visit the APACA website |
AuthorThe LUPA team at the County of Riverside Department of Public Health Archives
January 2018
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