The Design Star program, a learning collaboration between the City of Newberg, Oregon, and local 6th graders, will receive the American Planning Association’s 2013 National Planning Excellence Award for Public Outreach. The program was honored for its success in engaging almost every Newberg 6th grader in critical thinking about community planning, and encouraging and empowering them to be creative in finding ways to be involved with improving their community.

The Public Outreach Award recognizes an individual, project, or program that uses information and education about the value of planning and how planning improves a community's quality of life.

The Design Star program was created in 2006 in response to an APA National Community Planning Month initiative asking local planners to engage young people. Over the past five years, the program has evolved into an annual collaboration between Newberg city staff and middle school teachers and has been integrated into the curriculum.

Led by Newberg’s Assistant Planner Jessica Nunley, AICP, and GIS Analyst Jan Wolf, the Design Star program helps teach kids how and why things are organized the way they are in their community, as well as prompts them to think critically about the potential positive and negative impacts of a development, the need for jobs in the community, the need for certain city services (“city needs”), things that make cities great places to live (“city wants”), and even environmental impacts of commuting for jobs or recreation.

“The Design Star project invites students to think creatively and use higher order thinking skills including analysis, evaluation, synthesis and critical thinking that will drive student success in the 21st century,” said Ann C. Bagley, FAICP, 2013 APA Awards Jury chair. “The project not only teaches planning principles but it also helps young people develop skills related to innovative thinking, mapping, writing, presenting, and working in groups.”

As part of the program, city staff presents information using GIS (geographic information system) mapping technology to show different parts of the community such as the bare earth, utilities, addresses, parcels, and Census data. They then lead a discussion on the difference between city "needs" versus "wants", possible impacts of popular ideas for "wants" (i.e. amusement parks), their favorite parts about Newberg now, and what things Newberg might be missing to make it a great place to live. The students are then instructed to come up with a development proposal for one of two vacant sites in town. After several weeks of work, the students present their proposals to the class and the winning proposals are presented to city staff and elected officials.

“This program provides a unique opportunity for students to think critically about why a community would want to actively participate in decision making around land use, development, and the protection of our environment,” said Angela Lazarean, Education and Outreach Committee chair, APA Oregon Chapter.

Although the proposals are only hypothetical, Newberg city planners learned that the community is lacking places that are geared for teenagers to gather—something to consider when moving forward with city plans.

The Design Star Program will receive the Public Outreach Award in a special awards luncheon held during APA’s National Planning Conference in Chicago on Tuesday, April 16, 2013. The program also will be featured in Planning magazine, APA’s flagship publication.