Have you ever thought about going back to school? No? Well, what if I told you that there was such a thing as Citizen Planning School, where students learn about the topics such as land use, sustainability of food systems and transportation initiatives. This is Year Two for the Citizen Planning School – a program that enlists experts from around the Buffalo region to teach about their unique initiatives.
This Saturday’s session features presentations by local experts and practitioners:
Aaron Bartley, JD – Executive Director and Founder, Push Buffalo, will present on the topic of land Use.
Kelly Dixon, MUP – Transportation Planner, Greater Buffalo-Niagara Regional Transportation Council
Maryam Khojasteh, MUP – Research Support Specialist, Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab, University at Buffalo, will cover a range of initiatives that are emerging to address the sustainability of the design and operations of our food systems.
A session on Housing and Community Development, presented by Johanna Walczyk – Program Officer for Buffalo LISC – Local Initiatives Support Corporation – Buffalo (LISC).
Students will have a choice of one of two hands-on workshop – including one presented by Open Buffalo
This year there will be additional time spent on Q&A sessions and additional networking time.
*Residents of Erie and Niagara County meet again on Saturday, April 18th @ 10 am at UB South Campus as part of Year Two of the Citizen Planning School. Certificates will also be offered for the completion of each learning session via e-mail. Past learning session participants have called the training, “a super valuable tool for all citizens” and “well done, very informative, time well spent.”
Open Buffalo will host a workshop on how citizen planners can use “public narrative” as a way to motivate action and organize communities around ideas for change.
More about the program:
While UB Regional Institute hosts a “citizen mapping” workshop that will present free online mapping tools that can be used by citizen planners to advocate for change in their neighborhood. Participants will learn basics of data and map-making and get a chance to create their own map that can be shared over the web and embedded into websites, blogs, or social media feeds.
Interested residents can attend this free training session by RSVP-ing here, or showing up on the day of.
Event details:
4/18 Learning Session 2 – 10:00 AM (doors open at 9:30 AM) – 2:00 PM; 146 Diefendorf Hall, University at Buffalo – South Campus, 3500 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214
This unique program is part of the One Region Forward Sustainability Initiative and hosted by the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, UB’s Regional Institute with support from Dig Buffalo – Buffalo’s co-work space at Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc. Learn more about the Citizen Planning School.