This session features a panel of diverse perspectives to introduce three different examples of engaging communities and centering storytelling within placemaking: Chapter 510, a made-in-Oakland writing, bookmaking, and publishing center creating a safe space where Black, brown, and queer youth can write; EBALDC, a nonprofit community development organization building healthy, vibrant, and safe neighborhoods in Oakland and the East Bay; and SITELAB urban studio, a multidisciplinary urban design and strategy studio. Presentations will be followed by conversation facilitated by Emily Weinstein, a recognized innovator in the field of community development and engagement.
Learning Objectives
- Learn about existing gaps in design processes in engaging communities and centering diverse perspectives.
- Take away a sampling of different projects and strategies at various scales (from architecture to art to events/programming and urban planning) that have centered personal stories and lived experiences in the built environment.
- Leave inspired by lessons learned from a youth-led initiative in Oakland that may be applied to projects elsewhere.
- Spark new ways of thinking about the role of design professionals in creating dynamic, inclusive engagement processes and places.