Lindsey Richards FRTPI is RTPI President 2024
I write to you today, members, with a call to action. Over the last ten months, as President of the Royal Town Planning Institute, I have toured stretches of the UK, visiting local communities, their local authorities, schools, and businesses.
While I’ve come across many people passionate about their areas, I’ve found – as have many Presidents before me – a keen passion for local areas but a lack of understanding of the role of planners in shaping them.
Ten months ago, in my inauguration speech, I set out a goal to counteract this lack of awareness and build a cohort of young planning professionals that reflects the diverse communities in which we live and work.
There is a clear link between these two points.
To that end, I’m proud of the work RTPI Ambassadors have done this year to get into schools and introduce planning to a new generation in an accessible, exciting way. They have found, on the ground, a genuine excitement among students to engage with the challenges facing their generation and their communities.
If we can continue to connect the dots for students between the issues they care about and the work of planning, we can build a truly robust pipeline of young talented professionals.
That is why this is a call to action.
Today, we have launched an updated toolkit as an important output from our BALANCE (Build a Legacy And New Community Equality) initiative, which seeks to expand the reach of our volunteers and school ambassadors to reach an even greater number of young people.
I’m calling on every RTPI member to use our updated Ambassadors toolkit to devote at least two of your CPD hours next year to going into schools to champion planning. These materials will provide you with a starting point and support so you can introduce young people to planning, for a wide range of age groups.
I’ll be doing my part by using my year as past President to visit as many schools and colleges as I can to talk about planning with students. I’ll be attending careers fairs in schools and university throughout the UK, and I encourage RTPI members to join me.
A visit with young people can be invigorating and inspiring – and these BALANCE materials make it easy for you to get started. Personally, I believe it’s one of the most critical things we can all do for the future of planning.
So what next? Look at the toolkit and its advice and the materials, and plan your CPD for next year!
