Planning for the Future of Alabama

As a spinoff of the national Your Town program, Your Town Alabama was established in 1998, spearheaded by Paul Kennedy, a Your Town graduate, of the Cawaco RC&D Council. Working with the Auburn University Center for Architecture and Urban Studies, Your Town Alabama has held seven adult workshops, reaching nearly 330 people from 90 towns in the state. This year, the first Your Town Alabama Youth Workshop was held, funded through grants from the Alabama Historical Commission and the Appalachian Regional Commission. Like the adult program, the youth program hopes to cultivate leaders who understand the value of planning, know where to find design assistance, and have the confidence to take local action. The vision of the youth workshops is to inspire Alabama teens with the ability to make their communities match their dreams and the knowledge that each person's participation in community design is vital.

The initial Your Town Alabama Youth Workshop was held January 3-6 at Camp McDowell, a retreat near Jasper. It was attended by 23 high school students from Jasper, Mobile, Montevallo, and Trussville, four of the cities where a number of enthusiastic adult graduates of the Your Town Alabama workshops reside.

The first day of the workshop focused on issues of design in communities and on inspiring the youth to improve their hometowns. The discussion on the positive effects of good planning and design was followed by a review of the "visual preference" photographs taken by the participants of their hometowns, photos that were a part of the application process. Day Two focused on the definition and identification of cultural, natural, and economic resources in a hypothetical Your Town and in the participants' hometowns. The second day also included graphics exercises, a discussion on town governance, and a roll playing exercise of a city council in action. Day Three focused on the workshop exercises-finding solutions to issues which many rural communities in Alabama face. The final day focused on follow-up to the workshop, whereby participants were asked to make presentations to their city councils and to engage in a project in their hometown prior to graduation from high school. The students from each school met to discuss their council presentations and to start selecting projects.

Since returning home, each youth team has met with the local graduates of the adult Your Town workshops. Together they are working on their presentations and have begun identifying possible projects to improve the quality of life in their communities.

The initial youth program concept development and workshop were coordinated by the Auburn University Center for Architecture and Urban Studies in Birmingham, in cooperation with Your Town Alabama, Inc., a 501(c)(3). If you have questions or comments, please contact the Your Town office at (205) 264-8460, or visit their website at www.yourtownalabama.org.

Click here for photos of the 2002 Your Town Alabama Youth Workshop