200 people were in attendance at
Plan -it Earth 2011 on April 15th. This event enabled 120 youth to draw, write and describe their sustainable region. Planned by a core group of five dedicated youth and an action team of about 30 students, all from Churchill, Prince of Wales, St. Pats and Kitsilano Secondaries. Participants came from throughout Vancouver, and we warmly welcomed the presence of Windermere Secondary and Magee Secondary youth leadership groups. Students from David Lloyd George Elementary attended the Children's program. Plan-it earth was a collaboration of Vancouver youth with a passion for the environment. This event was hosted
once again by
Prince of Wales Secondary. Thanks
PW admin team!
We are very grateful for support from Bruce Ford and Vanessa Lee (Metro Vancouver); from Amanda Mitchell (the City of Vancouver); from Kevin Millsip, (sustainability coordinator, VSB) and
Stanley King from the Co-Design Group who donated facilitation services. We accepted funding, with thanks from
Architecture Canada: The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, the
Vancouver Foundation Youth Philanthropy Council, and the
Vancouver School Board through Kevin Millsip's
project eco-logo contest.
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| Tesicca, youth co-design artist, plan-it earth core team |
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day in the life of a sustainable region
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day in the life graffiti wall |
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| youth participant at plan-it earth |
The kick off was the
City on the Wall. Then, Bruce Ford and Vanessa Lee challenged participants to take a big satellite picture of metro Vancouver and write one thing important to them. Placing pennies on satellite maps, youth citizens attempted to prioritize limited funds to the regions that needed the funding the most. This was a great exercise to help teens understand the challenges faced by city planners.
Workshops followed, led by Kevin Millsip, Natalie Ethier, Ian Marcuse, Amanda Mitchell and Andrea Macdonald, as well as Check Your head. Kevin Millsip took this opportunity to gather student input for the VSB sustainability framework.
Our most popular workshop was "backyard chickens", led by Nick Sakich, a teen who initiated the letter writing campaign to allow backyard chickens into Vancouver. During lunch, we had two lively performances from the Prince of Wales Jazz band and from Anna Toth, a student performer from Churchill with an ethereal voice (just listen to the song she sang here!). During performances, the co-design artists took out their drawing boards and markers to warm up.
Together with the professional artists, youth co-design artists drew visions of a sustainable future for clusters of youth. updated post will include a gallery of these images.
There was music, laughter, drawing, doodling, a graffiti wall of ideas. In addition, there was a concurrent children's program led by Sarah Cheng, who volunteers with Catching the Spirit. (Natalie Haltrich from Catching the Spirit was in attendance too). The children's program allowed children to express their ideas for sustainable living.
Plan-it earth was organized to address the very real problem of the urban tsunami, which the youth of today must face with courage, optimism and innovative design ideas. PIE core team: Hobson Lin, Veronika Bylicki, Tesicca Truong, Grace Wicken, Colin Roberts, you are amazing leaders and catalysts for change. It is my great pleasure and privilege to work with you! -- Susan, PIE core team
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| Tesicca and Veronika, PIE core team: The City on the Wall: "Imagine you were here when the land was new..." |
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| participants draw a city on the wall |
Bruce Ford, Educational Coordinator of Metro Vancouver:" Is this where you what to live?"
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Vanessa Lee, leader of Interpretation, Metro Vancouver Parks
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| where would you put your financial resources in our region? |
what is your priority in the region?
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 Ian Marcuse helped build the cob house at Stanley Park. he taught Cob building |
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backyard chicken workshop
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| Anna Toth: Listen to her song here |
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| Grace coordinated food, and is part of our PIE core team |
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Grace baked enough Vegan cookies for 200 people!! |
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kitchen crew about to distribute organic pizza: Deanna, youth artist (left)
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Timmi's group joins in the collaborative drawing
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| Stanley King |
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| Susan Chung |
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| Drew Ferrari, the Co-Design Group and also Stantec, draws for youth participants |
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| Khorshid, youth artist |
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| Timmi, youth artist (she also designed the plan-it earth logo) |
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| Colin, PIE core team, (advertising, graphics, pictured here during co-design training, granville island) |
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| Reanne, youth artist, and photographer |
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Amanda Mitchell from the City of Vancouver: Many of these ideas are consistent with Talk Green To Us, a Vancouver initiative to gain citizen input in a sustainable Vancouver.
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| Hobson, Tesicca, Veronika, part of core team |
Ian Marcuse helped build the cob house at Stanley Park. he taught Cob building 
