Y-Plan Ends With A-Z Guide From Youth In Improving S.F. Bay Area

EAST PALO ALTO, CA —San Francisco Bay Area students in the upper echelons of creative thinking put a new spin on "kids will say and do the darndest things" as the brightest stars took to the mastermind campus of U.C. Berkeley for the 2019 Y-PLAN Policy Summit: Planning a More Inclusive and Resilient Region.

The summit wrapped up Thursday.

Students from East Palo Alto, Oakland, Richmond, San Francisco took part in presenting fresh solutions to some of the region’s biggest challenges such as affordable housing, transportation, education, jobs and climate change. Some local company

The summit provided a platform for these leaders of tomorrow to engage civic leaders in discussions for new approaches delivered from youth. More than 100 elementary and high school students brought their proposals before officials from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, San Francisco Planning Department, city of Oakland's Sustainability Department, and city of Richmond's City Manager’s Office.

Litzy Cortez, an 18-year-old senior at Phoenix Academy, focused her attention on "gentrification" with her team. The urban term refers to the upgrading of districts and regions to conform to middle-class standards and taste.

The Bay Area is undergoing an unprecedented millennial shift in which more citizens in the up-and-coming generations are being priced out and fed up with urban problems that have led to a recent flight out of the Bay Area. For those who want to stand and fight for a decent way of life, Cortez and the handful of students in her team provided surveys of what civic leaders expect and what grade schoolers want. The two examples of coinciding wish lists didn't always envision the same things for their neighborhoods.

The common denominator for most fell into the category of nightmarish traffic around the Bay Area.

"I think it's a big issue. When tech came in, there was a lot traffic in the city. It's always busy from especially 3 (p.m.) to 7 (p.m.). It just takes too long to move people around in Santa Clara County," Cortez said like a driver who's graced the highways for decades.

Heavy traffic was joined by homelessness and how that plight leads to illegal dumping. Also on the agenda was a community's sense of pride as other mainstream issues from which to build on the students' survey projects.

Sometimes the questions were as basic as: "What do you feel is wrong with your city?"

The youth perspective was refreshing, Facebook's Strategic Initiative Manager of Social Mobility Maya Perkins told Patch.

Perkins insisted her social media company has long supported giving youth a voice and has used proposals drummed up by students of the Y PLAN process.

"What we get out of it is good on-the-ground material in what is happening from the perspective of youth," said Perkins, who also live in East Palo Alto and works for the Menlo Park company.

"I love seeing a sense of pride from the youth in the community. It was an important part of growing up for me in my community — but not every person has that," she said, adding the students produced "solid recommendations" through assistance from U.C. Berkeley, ground zero for some of the highest achieving academic scholars in the world.

"What excites me most by all this is they are prepared to engage in meaningful conversations about the issues we face," Perkins said. "What we, as adults, can do is listen and collaborate with them."

Perkins keyed in on one focus that Facebook is viewing as a real-time solution.

The youth from Menlo Park, East Palo Alto and North Fair Oaks saw homeownership as an important tool to protect and build their communities. They sought innovative ways for community members to prepare for homeownership.

Facebook made a donation to support the partnership between The Dividend Project and Habitat for Humanity GSF to explore pathways to asset building and homeownership for people with barriers and cost burdens in the area.

Facebook’s $100,000 contribution will go towards the pre-development work for an innovative rental housing model. The Habitat for Humanity/Dividend Project team will be working to find land/development options and to secure investment for the development. This model is aimed at housing as a means for asset building for working individuals and families who are being priced out of the market. The priority in outreach efforts will be people from the communities where the housing will be built.

Forget the old adage that children are to be seen, not heard. Student teams presented their ideas to the Menlo Park and East Palo Alto city councils, among other community meetings. The blending of generations holds the capacity to shape our world.

“The students have worked hard with community partners to develop some innovative and sophisticated solution-based proposals,” said Deborah McKoy of the Center for Cities + Schools. “They are passionate about improving the places we all call home and want to underscore the urgency of addressing current inequities in affordability, accessibility, connectivity and inclusion in our cities.”

This year’s solution-based proposals include:

● Repurposing church-owned land for youth-friendly affordable housing (Oakland)

● Creating a regional ‘pod’ transportation system in the year 2050 (San Jose)

● Providing free and reduced digital and distributed education for all (American Canyon),

● Offering more multi-generational housing options and creating a youth policy advisory board to help stabilize gentrifying communities (Peninsula)

● Building indoor playgrounds and supplying masks to adapt schools to wildfires (Santa Rosa)

Under the Y-PLAN (Youth - Plan Learn Act Now) educational methodology, more than 700 student scholars from across the Bay Area partnered with over 50 civic and community organizations this year to research and develop policy proposals on the region’s pressing issues.

The initiative represents an award-winning educational strategy that empowers young people to tackle real-world problems in their communities through project-based civic learning experiences.

More information on the Y-Plan can be found here.