Citizen Planning School trains change agents in regenerative development
Champions for Change program connects university and citizens to translate community-building ideas into action
The 2019 class of Champions for Change. The course is offered through the School of Architecture and Planning to build citizen agency in regenerative development.
Published June 7, 2019
New York Times Columnist Thomas Friedman once quipped “The standard answer is that we need better leaders. The real answer is that we need better citizens.”
As our communities face the sweeping challenges of climate change, economic inequality, and a broken criminal justice system, it is citizens rather than policymakers who are pushing for bold and innovative solutions.
Nowhere is this more apparent than through the School of Architecture and Planning's Citizen Planning School, which works with an annual class of Champions for Change to turn their community-building ideas into action.
Last spring the program graduates its latest class of citizen activists. Focusing on the theme of regenerative development, the eight Champions for Change germinated action plans for initiatives as diverse as a tiny house movement on Buffalo’s East Side, a greenhouse to grow food year-round in Niagara Falls, and a community action group in the village of Springville. The course is part of the Citizens Planning School developed by the One Region Forward sustainable development plan for Erie and Niagara Counties.
Champions develop their ideas through a series of hands-on workshops with UB faculty and students and community leaders with expertise in marketing, design and planning.
Among the projects developed by the 2019 class of Champions for Change was "GreenHood," Bob Belton's proposal to develop a greenhouse in his Niagara Falls community. The site would serve as both a source of locally grown food and as an educational resource for high school students. Photo by Yifan He
The 2019 program was directed by Darren Cotton (MUP ’12), director of community development and planning for the University District Community Development Association. "As a University Heights booster who has seen firsthand the power of small changes and the impact that one person can have, the investment these Champions have made will pay dividends to their communities for years to come."
According to Dean Robert Shibley, the Champions for Change program embraces the School of Architecture and Planning’s ethos of Buffalo as a learning laboratory. “Our goal is to connect the resources and knowledge of our program with the community, to provide on-the-ground learning opportunities for our students and build meaningful relationships with community members.”
Drew Canfield, an MUP student who participated in the spring 2019 program, says the course allowed him to apply his studies in the community: "Champions for Change has definitely been the most rewarding class I've taken at UB. It has been really great to embed the work I am doing in the Buffalo Niagara community and contribute to a project that has a real impact.”
This year's class of Champions for Change.
The 2019 Idea Summit, hed last May, featured presentations from project leaders and this year’s Champions for Change. A keynote address was delivered by Flip White, a member of the Wolf Clan of the Seneca Nation, addressing the region’s legacy of regenerative development as it relates to Iroquois Great Law of Peace.
“Regenerative development,” the theme for the past two years of the Champions for Change program, recognizes the efforts of the Haudenosaunee, the Native American confederacy that has championed the symbiotic relationship with the land for hundreds of years.
Faculty and community mentors: Hadar Borden, director of UB’s Blackstone LaunchPad powered by Techstars program; Eve Holberg, planner and project manager at Joy Kuebler Landscape Architect; Will Becker, project manager for Sinatra Development; Beverly Newkirk, founder/executive director of It Takes A Village Action Organization; Stephanie Bucalo, community development coordinator of the University District Community Development Association.
Champions for Change student leaders: Brian Kwong, Nina Zesky, Drew Canfield, Avery Sirwatka, Ari Billy, Alex Dombrowski, Kylie Milliman, Tyler Madell, and Joseph Buttino. Additional support was provided by five community mentors, many of whom have shared their time, talent, and gifts with the program for multiple years.