YouthPower Guide 1997-2000 Since 1995 the youth and community arts program, El Arco Iris, has run the YouthPower project in South Holyoke, Massachusetts. YouthPower has worked to get young people involved in planning and building a better neighborhood. The YouthPower Guide is an illustrated manual that outlines many of YouthPower's most successful design and planning projects and explains how others can apply them in their neighborhoods. It is written to be used by young people aged 10 to 19, and by people who work with these youth. The manual won the 1998 Social Advocacy Award from the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Planning Association and (with the work of YouthPower) the 2000 Public Education Award from the national American Planning Association. These awards were shared by YouthPower and UPP. The manual also received a 1998 Honor Award in Communication from the Boston Society of Landscape Architects. The first and main part of the YouthPower Guide--called Build Your Team! Dream It! Plan It! Do It!--describes twenty-four activities ranging from "Deciding on your purpose," "Brainstorming a vision of your ideal community," and doing a "Neighborhood tour" to "Getting community input and support," "Making a project work plan," and "Doing the project." These activities can be done separately but when combined they add up to a comprehensive neighborhood planning and improvement process. Each activity is designed to be able to be accomplished in one or two one-and-a-half hour sessions. This manual leads other youth groups through the steps and processes necessary to both change the physical neighborhood through specific projects and to more generally address the more complex issues of neighborhood planning and urban design. The second part of the manual gives more detailed instructions for peer leaders and youth supervisors. The third part of the manual is a game or role play designed to illustrate some of the basic activities. The manual is heavily illustrated with examples from the work of YouthPower. The manual is available from U.Mass Extension.

Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning
University of Massachusetts, Amherst MA 01003, USA

Last Modified June 2000
upp@larp.umass.edu
http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~upp