Nashville Civic Design Center
Programs
Budget
$347,420.00
Description
Budget shared with DYN.
Nashville Youth Design Team is an extra-curricular high school internship program that builds on skills learned from the Design Your Neighborhood middle school curriculum. The internship is a yearlong paid extracurricular where the majority of the work is done during a 4-Week Summer Intensive. During the Summer, the diverse group of interns focus on research and design, ending with a presentation to local stakeholders. Afterwards, they meet on one Saturday per month, and finally implement their action project in the Fall.
Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is the foundation for the power behind the Nashville Youth Design Team's place-based advocacy. Youth, under the age of 18, are the main actors, leaders, designers, analysts, and advocates in YPAR. While the interns may not have the right to vote yet, their lived experiences as young people can provide those in power with information and ideas that could help improve the quality of life for youth.
Program Successes
The Tennessee Department of Transportation only allowed a tactical urbanism intervention on state road, Dickerson Pike, because they were inspired by the Nashville Youth Design Team. It was the first experimental installation ever on a state road, and less than a year later TDOT committed to transform nearly 2 miles of Dickerson Pike into a "Complete Street."
Beneficiaries
Adolescents
Long-term Success
The Nashville Youth Design Team will continue to collect data from their peers about how the built environment affects their holistic wellness. Using this data, they will design and implement built environment interventions aimed at improving youth wellness across Nashville. Youth will become an integrated part of city planning decisions due to the Youth Participatory Action Research methods.
Short-term Success
The Program aims to show youth the power they can have to change the youth wellness experience in Nashville before they turn 18. Additionally, Nashville Youth Design Team interns will gain insight into the processes of city planning and associated influential industries. The Program aims to bring more career awareness to the participating interns, encouraging them to consider architecture, city planning, and other civically-oriented career paths as an option for their future.
Program Success Monitored By
Vanderbilt University researchers in Peabody College under the work of Dr. Brian Christens and Sewanee College researchers under the work of Dr. Katy Morgan.
Program Areas Served
High School Students in Nashville, TN
$347,420.00
Description
Budget shared with DYN.
Nashville Youth Design Team is an extra-curricular high school internship program that builds on skills learned from the Design Your Neighborhood middle school curriculum. The internship is a yearlong paid extracurricular where the majority of the work is done during a 4-Week Summer Intensive. During the Summer, the diverse group of interns focus on research and design, ending with a presentation to local stakeholders. Afterwards, they meet on one Saturday per month, and finally implement their action project in the Fall.
Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is the foundation for the power behind the Nashville Youth Design Team's place-based advocacy. Youth, under the age of 18, are the main actors, leaders, designers, analysts, and advocates in YPAR. While the interns may not have the right to vote yet, their lived experiences as young people can provide those in power with information and ideas that could help improve the quality of life for youth.
Program Successes
The Tennessee Department of Transportation only allowed a tactical urbanism intervention on state road, Dickerson Pike, because they were inspired by the Nashville Youth Design Team. It was the first experimental installation ever on a state road, and less than a year later TDOT committed to transform nearly 2 miles of Dickerson Pike into a "Complete Street."
Beneficiaries
Adolescents
Long-term Success
The Nashville Youth Design Team will continue to collect data from their peers about how the built environment affects their holistic wellness. Using this data, they will design and implement built environment interventions aimed at improving youth wellness across Nashville. Youth will become an integrated part of city planning decisions due to the Youth Participatory Action Research methods.
Short-term Success
The Program aims to show youth the power they can have to change the youth wellness experience in Nashville before they turn 18. Additionally, Nashville Youth Design Team interns will gain insight into the processes of city planning and associated influential industries. The Program aims to bring more career awareness to the participating interns, encouraging them to consider architecture, city planning, and other civically-oriented career paths as an option for their future.
Program Success Monitored By
Vanderbilt University researchers in Peabody College under the work of Dr. Brian Christens and Sewanee College researchers under the work of Dr. Katy Morgan.
Program Areas Served
High School Students in Nashville, TN
Budget
$347,420.00
Description
Budget shared with NYDT.
Design Your Neighborhood (DYN) centers around a project-based middle school curriculum that takes place in classrooms using design to foster young civic leaders in Tennessee now. The curriculum teaches place-based design thinking within a project-based curriculum, so youth can take their lived experience and use that to make a physical improvement to their neighborhood before they are legally adults. DYN serves middle school students in both Nashville and Chattanooga, Tennessee, partnering with teachers who are excited about delivering the curriculum. The Civic Design Center and Chattanooga Design Studio support the teacher with partnerships and volunteers, so that students can take their knowledge about the built environment and put it into action.
Beneficiaries
Children and Youth (0 - 19 years)
K-12 (5-19 years)
Long-term Success
Increase the diversity of the architecture and urban planning industries by providing more exposure for these careers within public schools. Integrate youth into the city's planning and decision making, so that its design reflects youth.
Short-term Success
Familiarize youth with urban design, architecture and other possible career opportunities. Support youth to learn the power of their voice in community process, and provide them with the agency to make visible change on campus or in the community.
Program Success Monitored By
Vanderbilt University's Dr. Brian Christens, and Sewanee: University of the South's Dr. Katy Morgan analyze the program's success in both Nashville and Chattanooga, respectively.
Program Areas Served
Public middle schools across Nashville-Davidson County and Hamilton County
$347,420.00
Description
Budget shared with NYDT.
Design Your Neighborhood (DYN) centers around a project-based middle school curriculum that takes place in classrooms using design to foster young civic leaders in Tennessee now. The curriculum teaches place-based design thinking within a project-based curriculum, so youth can take their lived experience and use that to make a physical improvement to their neighborhood before they are legally adults. DYN serves middle school students in both Nashville and Chattanooga, Tennessee, partnering with teachers who are excited about delivering the curriculum. The Civic Design Center and Chattanooga Design Studio support the teacher with partnerships and volunteers, so that students can take their knowledge about the built environment and put it into action.
Beneficiaries
Children and Youth (0 - 19 years)
K-12 (5-19 years)
Long-term Success
Increase the diversity of the architecture and urban planning industries by providing more exposure for these careers within public schools. Integrate youth into the city's planning and decision making, so that its design reflects youth.
Short-term Success
Familiarize youth with urban design, architecture and other possible career opportunities. Support youth to learn the power of their voice in community process, and provide them with the agency to make visible change on campus or in the community.
Program Success Monitored By
Vanderbilt University's Dr. Brian Christens, and Sewanee: University of the South's Dr. Katy Morgan analyze the program's success in both Nashville and Chattanooga, respectively.
Program Areas Served
Public middle schools across Nashville-Davidson County and Hamilton County
CEO/Executive Director/Board Comments
| The mission of the Civic Design Center is to advocate for civic design visions and actionable change in communities to improve quality of life for all. The Civic Design Center has been drawn to engage in more and more specific projects as the means to progress our mission statement. The first significant partnership allowed the Design Center to research and explore ideas and images to help facilitate informed decisions in our local and regional transit planning. Staff, Design Fellows, and the University of TN College of Architecture and Design have engaged in the thoughtful review and visioning projects as they relate to transit and development in Davidson County. From here we expanded into Shaping The Healthy Community: Nashville a multi-year multifaceted project on the interface between health and the built environment that has informed programming choices for our long-standing Urban Design Forum program, an exhibition at the Downtown Library, our neighborhood outreach through the Livability Project, as well as the drafting of a white paper on Health and Livability for Nashville Next. The decision to engage in more project-based efforts has allowed the Design Center to diversify our funding, respond more rapidly to community needs and interests, and to maximize the benefits of many partnerships and connections available in Middle Tennessee. The publication of written reports on various topics has provided valuable education tools for elected officials, policymakers, Nashvillians and the development community. Partnerships with universities through internships and coursework has enhanced the quality of their programs through service learning and hands-on experience and continue to enhance our ability to research and generate thoughtful and informed case studies. We remain cognizant of the fact that we are a nonprofit and strive to maximize the resources we bring to opportunities that are unique and independent of those best provided by for-profit firms. |
