Our Story
It was 2006, when Founder and Executive Director, Corrin Wendell, was attending Graduate School at the Ohio State University working towards her Masters of City and Regional Planning, when she and Vice-President, Monica Tibbits-Nutt, were asked to develop a Planners' Day in School Manual by their professor as an independent study. This manual would become a document to guide planners on how to engage and educate youth about planning. The Planners' Day in School manual was completed and consisted of step-by-step methods of leading a variety of planning activities for grades K-12.
This manual became the catalyst to embarking on a journey of combining Corrin's passion for architecture and planning with engaging young people. From early on, Corrin has had a passion for engaging with youth. From participating in leadership activities in high school, tutoring middle school students, a 6th grade camp counselor, a swim team coach for the 5 year old age group, to substitute teaching for grades K-12, Corrin has always found ways to be involved with engaging youth. With the idea of YEP! in motion for over ten years, Corrin has been visiting schools across the country; educating, mentoring, and teaching youth about planning and civic engagement through Planners' Day in School. As a local government public sector City Planner for multiple communities, Corrin has also furthered this passion by engaging youth in the plan-making process and decision making within these communities. It is her hope that through YEP! young people can feel empowered to use their voice to enhance the communities they love! This clear passion for engaging with youth, planning, and architecture ignited Corrin's interest for furthering the efforts to have youth involved in community planning. From this passion, the YEP! Youth Engagement Planning non-profit organization was established in 2017.
It was then no surprise that Corrin enthusiastically invited Monica to join the YEP! Board of Directors, for which, she said "Absolutely!" and they have been pursuing the YEP! mission ever since!
This manual became the catalyst to embarking on a journey of combining Corrin's passion for architecture and planning with engaging young people. From early on, Corrin has had a passion for engaging with youth. From participating in leadership activities in high school, tutoring middle school students, a 6th grade camp counselor, a swim team coach for the 5 year old age group, to substitute teaching for grades K-12, Corrin has always found ways to be involved with engaging youth. With the idea of YEP! in motion for over ten years, Corrin has been visiting schools across the country; educating, mentoring, and teaching youth about planning and civic engagement through Planners' Day in School. As a local government public sector City Planner for multiple communities, Corrin has also furthered this passion by engaging youth in the plan-making process and decision making within these communities. It is her hope that through YEP! young people can feel empowered to use their voice to enhance the communities they love! This clear passion for engaging with youth, planning, and architecture ignited Corrin's interest for furthering the efforts to have youth involved in community planning. From this passion, the YEP! Youth Engagement Planning non-profit organization was established in 2017.
It was then no surprise that Corrin enthusiastically invited Monica to join the YEP! Board of Directors, for which, she said "Absolutely!" and they have been pursuing the YEP! mission ever since!