Education
The presentation highlighted the Resilient Communities Project (RCP), a new university-community collaboration to advance sustainable and resilient outcomes. The RCP offers a new model of university outreach, organized around a sustained one-year partnership with a single Minnesota community. During the partnership year, RCP staff match between 15-30 locally identified projects with graduate-level courses across the University of Minnesota. The presenters shared information about the RCP program, as well as details about projects completed during last year’s partnership with the City of Minnetonka and RCP’s new partnership with the City of North St. Paul. Among the diverse range of projects are a number that focus on transportation topics. In addition to offering innovation in outreach, RCP also serves as an important model for advanced cross-disciplinary and experiential learning opportunities—both of which are critical for advancing sustainability education.