Website |听

The Sustainable Communities Partnership (SCP) program focuses on the issues that communities face as our society transitions to a more sustainable future. SCP facilitates a program in which Western students carry out community-engaged learning projects to address challenges identified by the partner. 

Through SCP, students work with faculty experts to generate innovative solutions to community challenges.  Students learn best practices and translate their newfound knowledge into real-world practice. Completed projects have tackled issues in planning, economics, disaster preparedness, engineering, geography and GIS, business, journalism, outreach, statistics, climate change and more.

SCP partners with communities each academic year, facilitating a program in which WWU students complete community-based projects that address problems identified by the partner.  In a typical year, approximately 250 students from about a handful of classes undertake roughly a dozen projects. Previous SCP projects included classes from environmental studies, environmental science, GIS, anthropology, economics, computer science, recreation, public relations, sociology, and journalism.

Fun Facts about SCP

In 2020-2021, SCP remained active despite the COVID-19 pandemic, partnering with the Columbia Valley Park and Recreation District to conduct a remote public engagement campaign and compile a Comprehensive Park Plan which would provide community access to diverse parks and recreational opportunities.  Students in a Community Development and Participatory Methods course facilitated the engagement process, remotely completing a community survey, holding focus groups and stakeholder interviews, developing a website, creating an outreach video, and writing a communication plan. The Comprehensive Park Plan can be found at:

Year Program Established | 2016
Country | US
Federal Region of Program | 10
Public or Private Institution | Public
Number of students at institution | 15,197

Highlight Articles/Videos

 by Mark Wright and Allison Sundell

Community Partners

2016 | Edmonds, WA 鈥� Population: 40,000
2017 | Stanwood, WA 鈥� Population: 6,500
2017 | Skagit County, WA 鈥� Population: 70,000
2018 |City of Monroe, WA 鈥� Population: 17,789
2018 |City of Bellingham, WA 鈥� Population: 89,045
2018 |City of Ferndale, WA 鈥� Population: 14,026
2019 | Arlington, WA 鈥� Population: 19,483
2019 | City of Bainbridge Island 鈥� Population: 24,486
2020 | Columbia Valley Park and Recreation District
2021 | Whatcom County 鈥� Population: 229,247

Testimonials

“These students have been able to accomplish things that are better than we are able to accomplish and probably better than any professional contractor could accomplish. Where else are you going to have 10 students working on a setback project?”

Ryan Waters
Skagit County

鈥淭his Sustainable Communities Partnership was incredibly valuable for the City of Edmonds. From mapping the cemetery, to completing an Environmental Assessment of a local marsh, to adding education and expertise to many areas of our city government, the influence of student learning has been immeasurable. Thank you for the opportunity to benefit from this inaugural program. It was well received from elected officials, city staff, and citizens!鈥�

Carrie Hite
City of Edmonds

Contact Info

Lindsey MacDonald
Associate Director of Sustainability
(360) 650-3824
lindsey.macdonald@wwu.edu

Website |

The Sustainable Communities Partnership (SCP) collaborates with cities and government agencies to integrate community-identified sustainability projects into St. Thomas courses across disciplines engaging students in real-world, applied research and innovative problem-solving. Our partnerships seek to catalyze systems-level change towards human and ecological well-being in the Twin Cities area while preparing students for the complexities of problem-solving in contemporary society.

Since SCP’s launch in Spring 2016, over 2,000 students from more than 100 courses across 26 disciplines have participated in over 150 local and regional sustainability projects.

Our focus is on multi-year partnerships with communities seeking to make systemic changes toward interconnected economic, social, and ecological sustainability. We partner with cities, watershed districts, regional government agencies, non-profits focused on city sustainability, and on-campus initiatives.

Inspired by the transformative impacts of efforts that bridge art and sustainability, SCP launched .  SCP Arts develops partnerships and projects through which students across majors collaborate with local artists, writers, and communities to translate their project findings into artwork, bringing to life community-identified sustainability goals for people of all ages.  We have collaborated with partners on public art installations, such as the , on community exhibits, including , , and .  We also collaborate with writers and researchers to engage in community-centered explorations of .

Fun Facts about SCP

鈥淪CP has been essential in showing how our education ties in with the UST mission. This project has allowed us to analyze real-world data, collaborate with classmates, and present solutions to problems that affect real communities. We are applying skills we have cultivated in the classroom to projects that advance the common good,鈥� stated an Economics student whose project team determined that Delano, MN (pop. 5,464) could generate net savings of $854,000 over ten years with energy efficiency upgrades.

Year Program Established | Fall 2015
Year Program Launched | Spring 2016
Country | US
Federal Region of Program | 5
Public or Private Institution | Private
Number of students at institution | 10,245

Highlight Articles/Videos

Partners

2016 |听City of Delano 鈥� Population: 5,464
2016 – 2017 |听City of Elk River 鈥� Population: 23,746
2016 – 2020 |听Mississippi Watershed Management Organization
2016 – 2017 |听Freshwater Society
2016 – 2017 |听Tiny Footprint Coffee
2017 – 2019 |听City of Big Lake 鈥� Population: 10,060
2017 – 2019 |听PLACE’s Via Development in St. Louis Park, MN
2017 – 2024 |听Metropolitan Council
2017 – 2024 | Metro Transit
2019 鈥� 2020 | Pillsbury United Waite House Urban Farm, Minneapolis, MN
2019 – 2021 | City of Cottage Grove 鈥� Population: 35,632
2020 鈥� 2023 | Caponi Art Park, Eagan, MN
2020 鈥� 2023 | N奴Loop Partners and Mpls Downtown Council, Minneapolis, MN
2020 鈥� 2023 | City of Woodbury 鈥� Population: 70,840
2021 鈥� 2022 | Saint Paul Almanac
2022 鈥� 2025 | Center for Mission, Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis Creation Care Team
2022 鈥� 2025 | Great Plains Institute, in partnership with GreenStep Cities

Contact Info

Maria Dahmus
Director, Sustainable Communities Partnership
(651) 962-6391
medahmus@stthomas.edu

Banner image graciously provided by: University of St. Thomas Photo 

Website |听

The Sustainable Working Land Initiative (SWLI) is the centerpiece of the Upper Mississippi Center’s (UMC) efforts to build learning partnerships that enhance the value of a liberal arts education by solving challenges facing communities. The model is a one- or two-year partnership between Augustana and a city/county partner, matching existing courses and other learning experiences (independent research, internships, etc.) with community-identified and driven sustainability problems.

The SWLI enables cities and counties to achieve their economic, social, and environmental sustainability goals, while allowing students to learn through real-world problem-solving. Modeled after the Sustainable Cities Year Program at the University of Oregon, Augustana’s SWLI is the only such program at an undergraduate institution.

SWLI asks communities to identify their most pressing social, economic, and sustainability challenges. It builds enduring relationships between Augustana and the partner community. 

The center’s current partner is Scott County, Iowa, for the second academic year. The project is to assist Scott County in identifying homes with lead-based paint, which can cause serious health issues, particularly among children.

The first year involved 6 courses (geography, GIS, public health, environmental studies, accounting/business, sociology) and 4 senior inquiry research projects (public health, geography); generated experiences for over 100 students; and involved the participation of 8 faculty from a diverse array of departments across campus. Year 2 will involve 5 first year courses (108 students) helping with data collection, 9 additional courses (spanning many different disciplines) comprised of over 161 students doing related projects; and at least 7 senior inquiry research projects.

The UMC mobilizes Augustana鈥檚 faculty and students to help communities solve social, economic, and environmental challenges. Communities sometimes lack the resources to develop and implement innovative solutions to sustainability challenges. Augustana students and faculty have the skills and knowledge but often lack real-world settings to put their expertise to work. These sustainability challenges create opportunities for students to learn how to tackle and solve complex, controversial 21st-century problems. The UMC brings these groups together.

The center integrates knowledge and perspectives from the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences to create solutions as students work with community members. Since 2013, the UMC has created high-impact learning experiences across campus with community-based research projects, project-based learning experiences for existing courses, internships, and service-learning experiences.

These experiences:

• Are community-identified and driven problems that focus on an economic, social, or environmental sustainability problems
• Are action-oriented and try to move towards solving the problem
• Require authentic collaboration with community partners and stakeholders
• Create opportunities for students to make a difference

Fun Facts about SWLI

Our work has identified 18% of the pre-1978 housing stock that captures more than 54% of the addresses where children have been poisoned by lead since 2000. It has also identified a locally administered revolving loan fund as the most feasible and promising funding mechanism. Combined, these student-led findings will help focus limited resources in the areas of the county with the highest risk and most vulnerable populations.

Year Program Established | 2015
Country | US
Federal Region of Program |EPA Regions 5 and 7

Public or Private Institution | Private
Number of students at institution | 2,500

Highlight Articles/Videos

 by Yessenia Chavez
 by Kevin E. Schmidt

City Partners

2015 | City of Clinton Iowa 鈥� Population: 22,000
2016 | Scott County Iowa 鈥� Population: 450,000+
2017 | Scott County Iowa 鈥� Population: 450,000+

Contact Info

Michael Reisner
Organization Director
(309) 794-3418
michaelreisner@augustana.edu

Jenny Arkle
Program Manager
(309) 794-7844
jennyarkle@augustana.edu