Volunteering at the RTPI – a Portuguese perspective

Catarina Bentes is a spatial planner and urban designer in the Portuguese public sector. She has 25 years of experience with land use planning, master planning, urban design, public space projects, environmental planning and enforcement, at regional and local levels. Catarina recently transitioned to a national level agency and is working in research for policy on regional cohesion. 

Catarina holds two postgraduate degrees that introduced the British planning system and, since then, follows the industry for updates. She is a member of the RTPI's International Committee and the Voluntary Advisory Group.

Mid-career with a few boxes already ticked… what now?

After years of walking a path of ups and downs (or sideways) in my career, without much time to think about anything else (that is if I wanted to save some time for non-work-related activities…), finally a year with no clouds ahead - 2025!

The hectic pandemic years had enabled a much-anticipated change in what I was doing professionally (also where and how) and luckily everything fell into place to allow time for exploring the RTPI’s web resources.

Volunteering was a thought prompted by an email from the institute to its members, with an obvious first question popping up: online volunteering from overseas? Is it doable? A second question immediately followed: what can I bring to the table from Portugal, a country with a totally different system?

The reason for my hesitation stems from tradition: before covid I had no routine of using online media for anything work related and only did it if there was no alternative. Everything meant going somewhere and meeting someone.

Thinking about it and considering the type of work I always did, there was no good reason to keep thinking this way and doing so would probably mean a few good, missed opportunities. And the different planning system? Who knows, maybe I’ll find some common ground after all.

So, it was time to overcome this mindset and applying to sit at the RTPI’s International Committee seemed like a good place to start! Both the application and “enrolment” processes went smoothly, thanks to the support of the institute staff involved with volunteering.

Meetings happen every trimester and are documented in detail through resources made available in the volunteer hub online. This is accessible from everywhere, ensuring support and allowing productive contribution from and to members.

During my first-year volunteering, in 2025, I was honoured to be a part of the committee’s work overseas to uplift the planning profession, to add a planning view to initiatives by international organizations on humanitarian causes and to ensure a great commemorative program of World Town Planning Day, on November 7th.

RTPI members can also volunteer to other online initiatives apart from the standing committees. The Volunteer Advisory Group brings together ideas on an array of issues to raise the profile of volunteering, ranging from the RTPI’s website, opinion surveys, strategy building, important updates briefing, etc. Meetings are coordinated never to overrun, and organizers are keen on acknowledging the volunteers’ time and other responsibilities.

So, by the end of 2025 I had no doubt I wanted to continue and can only recommend the experience to other members as a great way to broaden (planning) horizons.

Find out about more about the opportunities to volunteer at the RTPI. Or come along to our next online information session on Friday 27 March at 12pm by registering your interest.