Access to Opportunity Begins at Home - Where You Live Matters! Rainier Beach High School BLOC Party Workshop 2016

WA-APA’s Youth in Planning Taskforce engaged youth at Rainier Beach High School in a discussion about disparities in opportunities among different communities and how we might foster social equity through urban planning.

To start things off, Michael Hubner from the Puget Sound Regional Council described how they defined and ranked opportunity throughout the region by measuring the quality of education, economic health, housing and neighborhoods, mobility and transportation and environmental health in census tracts. The resulting composite opportunity scores illustrated the need for many solutions to address inequalities throughout the region.

Students then identified assets within their Rainier Beach community, places they love and want to preserve. Next, they identified areas they would like to see change in some way or improved upon. Finally, they identified assets they would like to see added to their community, which would enrich their opportunities to develop the skills they need to achieve their dreams.

Summarizing the students’ ideas, planners then composed a letter to Seattle’s Mayor and City Council for consideration.

Supporting materials include: Opportunity Mapping PowerPoint, Neighborhood map, What matters to youth maps

For more information contact: Jacqueline Reid at [email protected], Michael Hubner at [email protected], Darryl Eastin at [email protected], or Gwen Rousseau at [email protected].

Image: Puget Sound Regional Council’s presentation slide on Mapping Opportunity.

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