September’s UDP will be at a different time and date than usual. Local members of AIA, ASLA and APA are putting together a brief on trying to bring the DAT to Portland to address our local issues. Join us to learn what the DAT is, and discuss what is needed and give feedback on how to approach these issues.

Design Assistance Teams: Six Decades of Community Impact

The Architects Foundation’s Design Assistance Team (DAT) program brings together volunteer professionals and citizens to build strategies that solve the most pressing issues facing the places we call home. DATs represent one of the most impactful investments ever made in communities by the architecture profession and one of the most influential investments ever made in urbanism. The program has a six-decade track record of demonstrated success with tens of thousands of volunteers and citizens working hand in hand to benefit communities. Today, the initiative has included direct work in over a dozen countries across 5 continents, including communities in 47 US states. It has profoundly impacted how our profession approaches communities, with its methodology widely adapted to fuel thousands of additional processes and a global participatory urban movement in recent decades. This session will introduce the core elements of the methodology that have made the program so impactful and describe the 2027 Call for Applications process.

Learning Objectives:

1)        Understand the guiding principles and methodology that  Design Assistance Teams employ to help communities reach more equitable and sustainable outcomes. 

2)        Understand CxD’s story of impact can be used as a powerful narrative for the value of architects, including how various AIA Components and Members have leveraged the process for community impact.

3)        Learn how CxD’s methodology has been successfully adapted by numerous institutions and organizations all over the world and how it can be adapted

4)        Explore comparative case studies across the US and internationally.

Joel Mills

Joel Mills is Senior Director of the Architect Foundation’s Communities by Design program. The program has catalyzed billions of dollars in sustainable development across the United States, helping to create some of the most vibrant places in America today. Joel’s 30-year career has been focused on strengthening civic capacity, public processes, and civic institutions. This work has helped millions of people participate in democratic processes, visioning efforts, and community planning initiatives. He has delivered presentations, training content, workshops, and public processes in over a dozen countries across 5 continents. In the United States, Joel has provided consultative services to hundreds of communities, leading participatory processes on the ground in over 100 communities across 38 states. His work has been featured in over 1,000 media stories. Joel has served on dozens of expert working groups, boards, juries, and panels focused on civic discourse and participation, sustainability, and democracy. He was a founding Board Member of the International Association for Public Participation’s United States Chapter. He has spoken at numerous international events and conferences concerning democratic urbanism and the role of democracy in community success, including serving as the Co-Convener of the Remaking Cities Congress in 2013. Joel is an Academician of the Academy of Urbanism in London, UK and serves as a Senior Editorial Associate at Civic Green. He was a contributing author to Future-Proofing Local Government: Essays on Innovation, published by the ICMA in 2025.