Education and Outreach Committee

The Education and Outreach Committee (EOC) works on programs that will help inform the general public, the media, other organizations and students about planning and related issues. We often partner with other like-minded organizations to more effectively reach a broader audience and create a better understanding of planning issues across the state. The committee meets monthly by conference call; contact the Chair for more information on how to get involved.

Current efforts include:

• National Community Planning Month (NCPM): In 2018, OAPA started a major initiative to encourage and help communities all across Oregon participate in National Community Planning Month. Held annually in October, and supported by national APA, OAPA provides resources and helps promote communities’ efforts and planning successes. Click here to learn more about NCPM, find resources, and see how communities around Oregon are celebrating! The EOC also encourages communities to consider working with OAPA to nominate a neighborhood, public space, or street to be recognized by APA’s Great Places in America program.
  
• Oregon Community Assistance Planning Program (CAPP): This program is designed to bring planning resources—professional planners volunteering their time and expertise—and opportunities to communities that would otherwise not have access to these services or planning expertise, and to strengthen the ability of community members to influence or determine decisions that affect their quality of life. CAPP workshops seek to foster community education and civic engagement. Find out how to become a project community or volunteer here.
  
• Better Planners Podcast: Better Planners is a podcast that aims to highlight and facilitate real stories about real solutions from the ground-level work of planners, community development advocates, and allied professions
  
• Communicating the Benefits of Planning: EOC partnered with the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, the City of Portland, and Clackamas County to better understand the psychology and behavioral issues behind NIMBY’s and create tools to educate the public about the benefits of planning.
  
• Urban Design Panel (UDP): The UDP is a monthly collaboration between OAPA and the Oregon Chapters of the American Institute of Architects and the American Society of Landscape Architects, focusing on presentations from the planning and design community on major development projects or public policy issues with significant urban design implications.
  
• Plan4Health: With support from the American Planning Association, the American Public Health Association, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, OAPA worked with statewide partners to conduct a planning and health assessment in Oregon. EOC also facilitated a Healthy Community Speaker Series.
  
• NW Youth Careers Expo: EOC participates in the Youth Expo annually. The NW Youth Careers Expo is the Northwest’s premier career-education event, attended by 5,600+ high school students and 130+ exhibitors. It shows students the region’s amazing diversity of career opportunities, as well as the skills and education needed for those jobs.
  
• Oregon 2050: Oregon 2050 is an Initiative that strives to ensure Oregon becomes a healthy, vibrant, and resilient place for all its residents in the future. Originally conceived by OAPA and other professional organizations, PSU’s IdeaLab in the College of Urban and Public Affairs is currently developing a work program for a three phase program that will produce a Foresight report, create a process to identify a strategic vision for Oregon’s future, and develop an action plan to achieve that vision.
  
• Direct Public Communication: Committee members create material to be used to help educate the public, the media and other organizations about planning issues. The committee may also respond to information from other sources to help better inform the public about planning.