Making a Difference in Our Community

4th and 5th grade Y-PLAN students at Malcolm X Academy Elementary School partnered with the San Francisco Planning Department, CommunityGrows, and the San Francisco National Organization for Minority Architects (SFNOMA) to focus on environmental justice and youth power in their Bayview community. Over the course of the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years, students brainstormed, researched, and presented recommendations for environmental resiliency and increased educational resources at panels with college students and civic leaders. At the end of the project, students worked with adult volunteers to renovate their school’s outdoor learning garden, create a colorful “snake path” leading down a staircase, and install a small fruit orchard on their campus.

Instructors: Rebecca Seid, Teacher; Matt Fitzsimons, Principal

Civic Clients: Luiz Barrata, Danielle Ngo, Lisa Chen, Julian Banales, Jacqueline Kaiser (SF Planning Department)

Student Scholars: 4th and 5th Grade, 20 students

High Education Partners: Dr. Deborah McKoy, UC Berkeley Department of City and Regional Planning & Center for Cities + School; Professors Margaret Ikeda and Evan Jones, California College of the Arts

Community Partners: Vanessa Williams Kulima (CommunityGrows); Prescott Reavis, D’Sjon Dixon (SFNOMA)

Environmental Justice: How can we repair and create a Bayview that is safe, thriving and environmentally equitable? (2020-2021)

Sub themes:

- Clean Air and Water - Healthy Food Access - Physical Activity - Public Safety

Youth Power: How Can We Make a Difference in Our Community? (2021-2022)

The streets, housing, school, and public spaces in San Francisco’s Bayview community have been impacted by environmental injustice, racism, and disinvestment by the public and private sector. Each of our four thematic areas presented a set of distinct challenges in need of repair.

Project Sites

As the project began during distance learning, students embraced creative ways to conduct their SWOT Analysis in a digital environment – describing their lived experiences in Bayview through the eyes of superheroes. Beyond Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, the students shared how their families, friends, and neighbors came together to support each other during the pandemic and the ways they feel comforted and supported by people in their lives.

Students discussed a variety of topics, including: public safety for all ages, options for physical activity, accessibility to healthy foods, and clean water and air.

Based upon their SWOT analysis, their lived experiences, and interviews with family and neighbors, the students generated a set of recommendations to respond to the project question in the four thematic areas. Students used the Mural digital platform to gather data, review best practices, and ideate possible recommendations.

To augment the students’ skill sets, we built a repository of slide shows to introduce them to technical information, best practices and more. These visual presentations included:

• Introduction to City Planning
• Introduction to maps and mapping
• Local conditions and issues of Islais Creek and the San Francisco Bay shoreline
• Best practices in environmental repair
• Inspirations from around the world
• 12-year legacy of Malcolm X youth engagement in Bayview’s community development

In the digital environment, students were able to capture and tabulate data in real time. They were able to share about lived experiences, life and communication skills, and a chart measuring student competencies at the end of the year.

Students used the Mural digital platform to gather data, review best practices, and brainstorm policy ideas. Based on their SWOT analysis, lived experiences, and interviews with family and neighbors, the students then generated a set of recommendations to respond to the project question in each of the four thematic areas, including: protected bike lanes, more sidewalks, pools, water parks, and cooking classes.

• More protected bike lanes and places to walk on 3rd Street that are in close proximity to parks and schools
• People need to take care of each other and be fair. No bullying and/or violence.
• Everyone needs to follow health guidelines.

• More water parks, pools, and game areas for kids to be active.
• Safe spaces and places where children can ride their bikes.
• Pathways along the shoreline that will give people places to walk, move, and ride about the community

• Increased action to reduce trash and pollution around the Bay. Make it fun for people to throw away trash.
• More tree canopy can help clean the air through carbon sequestration.
• Increased action to protect plants and animals along the shoreline.

• Fruit trees on streets, in neighborhoods, and in schools can help create increase access and more awareness for organic and locally grown foods
• Increased places to learn about healthy food and cooking classes in the parks.
• More stores and restaurants with healthy food on 3rd street and in the community that are within walking distance

2021 Multi-generational Panels + Virtual Exhibition

To mark the end of the challenging 2020-2021 online school year, students collaborated with CCA Buoyant Ecologies Lab, an architecture class that creates online virtual exhibitions. They used the Kundtmatrix program to feature their 2-D drawings and 3-D models, representing their visions and recommendations for Islais Creek and the surrounding Bayview neighborhood.  In the exhibition, the children’s work was powerfully integrated with the work of college students and kicked off with a week of virtual panel discussions and presentations. The 4th grade students participated in all the panels, as well as hosted one of their own.

2022 Youth Making a Difference: Bringing an Idea to “Fruition”

In the second year of Y-PLAN, the now-5th grade students revisited their menu of recommendations to make “repairs” that would promote a thriving Bayview community.  Back in the classroom, they explored physical models that might express their visions in the form of fruit orchards, outdoor learning environments, native animal habitats, and artful features. At the end of the project, the 5th grade students presented their ideas to college students and adult professionals. They received feedback and answered questions, enabling them to develop a prioritized list of actionable interventions in the built environment on their own campus.

2022 Presenting and Prioritizing

The fifth grade students presented their ideas to college students and adult professionals, and received feedback and answered questions, enabling them to develop a prioritized list of actionable interventions in the built environment on their own campus.

2022 Public Presentation

Three student representatives participated in the Y-PLAN 2022 Youth Summit at Oakland City Hall and met with their UC Berkeley college mentors. There they shared their posters documenting the two-year process and stepped up to the podium to share their ideas, visions, and successes in Y-PLAN with the audience.

2022 Build Days

The first project was to renovate the school’s outdoor learning garden, “Roots of Discovery.”  Students worked with adult volunteers to sand, build, paint, clean up the gateways, plant beds, and make signage.

In subsequent build days, students refurbished benches and created a colorful “snake path” leading down the staircase abutting the site they selected to plant a fruit orchard.

Lastly, to respond to issues such as Healthy Food, Clean Air, and Environmental Justice, the students installed a small fruit orchard on their campus.

2022 Fruit Orchard and Snake Path – Fifth Grade Legacy Project

As their legacy to make a difference in their community, the fourth and fifth grade students refurbished the learning garden, created a snake. Path, and installed a small fruit orchard on their campus, to enable future generations of students to learn about and enjoy.

Building upon proposals developed by the 4th grade students in 2020-2021, the Malcolm X Academy continued to collaborate with our partner organizations to follow through on some of the students’ goals and recommendations. During the 2021-2022 school year, students continued to develop long-term visions of what will “make a difference” and then they moved to implement a short-term “actionable” piece of that vision. Students aimed to create a prototype, an installment, a temporary “pop-up,” or an act of urban acupuncture designed and constructed as a physical intervention in the built environment: “something that starts small, with the potential to grow bigger”.

To learn more about other Y-PLAN projects:

For more information on Y-PLAN:

For more information on the Center for Cities + Schools: