On June 24, 2021, Project Cities hosts its Faculty Round Tables event, to network with Peoria leaders and discuss class projects for the 2021-2022 academic year.

 

RSVP here!

 

ASU faculty are invited to join staff from 9 City of Peoria departments to co-develop class projects. At this event, we will host a session of virtual breakouts for faculty members to discuss and workshop proposed projects, and to brainstorm new ideas. The goal is to match faculty and students to meaningful, hands-on community projects with real impacts in the upcoming academic year.

We care currently recruiting faculty to participate in the upcoming program cycle. Get in on the opportunity to meet our community partners early and secure an applied project for your students. This will be a virtual event with the freedom to move between breakouts rooms, each featuring city staff from a different department. Additional “sidebar” rooms are available for follow-up conversations.

Gregory Broberg has been a faculty collaborator on multiple projects with with PC, advancing key projects such as the community placemaking study with Peoria, in 2019. Greg joined the PC faculty network following our last faculty open house event in 2019, and now regularly incorporates applied projects with PC into his classroom. “The Project Cities Faculty Round Table led me to my first student-involved with the City of Peoria. Having the opportunity to hear the different project ideas and then chat with specific city officials was exactly what I needed to say YES.”

 

Evolving list of potential projects

This project list is not finite, because there are so many great ways to engage students in the public sector! We will continue to add to this list as additional project concepts come in.  Here is the running list as of 6/17/21:

• Investigate gaps in food security networks and human service needs
• Explore "mental health court" programs, and diversion mechanisms to prevent violence and abuse
• Strategize on open space conservation plans for northwest Peoria and the land around Lake Pleasant
• Investigate and document the local history, both recent and pre-European colonization
• Assist in conducting a preliminary position analysis, and providing strategic guidance, to assist in benchmarking the City’s GHG emissions
• Support future placemaking efforts by envisioning urban design concepts for the public sphere
• Conduct a user experience study of the City’s websites
• Identify best practices in recycling challenging materials and developing recycling educational programs
• Develop marketing and outreach media designed to encourage youth ridership on Peoria’s POGO Bus
• Strategize on water reuse strategies for Peoria’s treated wastewater and stormwater systems
• Provide public health and messaging guidance on plans for Covid-19 vaccine booster programs
• Research community forestry programs to inform efforts to increase local tree canopy
• Design a new City-supported public mural program, with mechanisms for public engagement, and a proposal evaluation process
• Plan for increased water needs commensurate with projected population growth
• Craft an informed transition strategy for city-wide vehicle fleet electrification
• There's more to come, so stay tuned!

As we’ll discuss at the event, the projects are in the conceptual phase for now, so they are left intentionally general here. This is your opportunity to get in early on the planning process! The City is also open to fielding new project ideas based on your class offerings and research interests, so you are welcome to propose new ideas for engaging with the City’s municipal leaders.

 

RSVP to receive the Zoom link at: links.asu.edu/PCFacultyEvent

 

Project Cities is a member of the Educational Partnerships for Innovation in Communities Network (Epic-N) and is administered by ASU’s Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory and the Sustainable Cities Network. Stay up to date with Project Cities and the Sustainable Cities Network by following us on social media or subscribing to our newsletter.