UrbanPlan Volunteers
ULI volunteers are an essential component of UrbanPlan. They make a significant impact in the classroom with minimal demands on their schedule.
Become an UrbanPlan Volunteer
Volunteers must commit to one ~7-hour training that requires ~3-4 hours of advance preparation. After completing the training, volunteers are eligible to participate as facilitators or “city council” members in at the participating schools. Trained volunteers can elect to participate in a facilitation, which typically lasts 45 minutes, or a “city council” day, which typically last between 90 minutes and 3 hours depending on the size of the class.
Interested in becoming a trained volunteer? Please contact Sofia Guerrero via e-mail at sofia.guerrero@uli.org or call 917.773.8834
Volunteers in the Classroom
The Students:
- High school seniors in economics and government classes.
- Graduate students whose focus is land use: city and regional planning, business, real estate, architecture, and law.
Volunteers’ Roles:
Facilitator: Facilitators engage in Socratic interaction twice with the student teams over the course of the 15 class-hour project and prior to the presentations of proposals. This process is transformative to the students’ insights and capacities.
City Council: The “City Council” hears the student proposals, challenges them as would a City Council, and awards the development contract to the winning “developer.”
UrbanPlan Revised Curriculum – Classroom Volunteers FAQ Webinar
This video covers the modifications to the UrbanPlan curriculum that trained volunteers need to know to be effective Facilitators and City Council Members. This is not a training session for new volunteers or a refresher training for existing volunteers.