Youth Engagement, Integrated Initiatives and Planning for Equitable, Healthy and Sustainable Communities: Learning from HOPE SF

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Arne Duncan has made it clear that realizing social and economic justice will require integrated and inclusive initiatives to build healthy and sustainable communities. In doing so, Secretary Duncan lends support to ongoing efforts like HOPE SF - a partnership between the San Francisco Mayor's Office of Housing, the SF Housing Authority, SF Unified School District, local community development firms, and other community partners. A critical component of this initiative has been the role young people ranging from elementary to high school have played as legitimate participants in this official effort to revitalize San Francisco's most-distressed public housing developments. Based on the award-winning Y-PLAN (Youth-Plan, Learn, Act, Now) program, youth are proving once again that they can be a catalyst for positive change and a bridge between historically divided institutions likes municipalities and school districts. We describe our work with HOPE SF and the critical role that young people are playing in planning and developing healthy communities for themselves and their families. We document how concerted efforts to include underrepresented voices in general and the voices of young people in particular are positively impacting HOPE SF efforts to address the historical social and economic isolation that has plagued public housing residents and contributed to their persistent health inequities. By doing so, we are able to offer evidence-based recommendations for how other communities can harness what is increasingly recognized as "the unique ability of humans to plan creatively for healthy communities."