Margaret Haltom - Youth-Driven Design

YOUTH-DRIVEN DESIGN

I'm passionate about empowering and collaborating with young people. Through facilitating after-school programs and youth leadership initiatives in public schools and housing developments, I've introduced youth to the planning field and engaged them in reimagining public spaces. I've led workshops to teach design tools, supporting young leaders to transform visions into actionable proposals. Programs have covered topics including participatory mapping and GIS, zoning and land use, environmental justice, oral history, public memory, and youth participatory action research methods.

YOUTH PHOTO VOICE

Youth photo voice project to reimagine and propose new public play spaces at a public middle school

PARTICIPATORY DESIGN GAMES

Participatory mapping and design games for youth to map out missing amenities in their neighborhoods

CODESIGN REPORT YOUTH 3.6.pdf

YOUTH-ENGAGED DESIGN FOR THE ACRE

This report details a community design project that I directed from 2019-2020 in partnership with middle schools, their teachers and fellow planning master's students. Facilitating after-school programs and a summer camp, I worked with youth leaders at Stoklosa Middle School in Lowell, MA, to propose safer routes to school, new play spaces and green spaces, and after-school resources. Together, we explored how and why urban planners and designers should amplify youth voices in the future of their schools and neighborhoods.

Eco Dem EvALUATION.pdf

"QUICK WINS" THROUGH YOUTH-DRIVEN DESIGN

From 2017 to 2018, I collaborated with youth resident leaders to shape the redevelopment plans for their housing, a section-8 complex home to over 300 youth in Downtown Charlottesville. This report details the aims and early outcomes of our partnership with the youth residents, funded for their time, to re-envision their housing. I co-facilitated workshops on zoning and land use, participatory mapping, and affordable housing finance to equip youth with tools to weigh in on property management decisions.

Haltom_exercise 4 final v.8.pdf

YOUTH RESIDENT LEADERSHIP CURRICULUM

Inspired by Piedmont Housing Alliance's youth resident leadership program (above), this proposed curriculum for a youth resident leadership program outlines how young residents could shape public housing redevelopments in South Boston. I designed the curriculum to connect citizen science lessons, design workshops, field trips, access to summer internships and job placement. The proposed seeks to equip young residents with the tools to weigh in on the BHA's planning and design decisionmaking.