Sustainable City Year Conference

Posted by University of Oregon on March 16, 2015

Learn the tools you need to launch an award-winning catalytic learning model at your university

What is the Sustainable City Year Program model?

The SCY model is a catalytic learning model first developed at the University of Oregon that leverages existing courses at higher education institutions to work on applied community projects identified by one community partner (i.e., a city, county, school district, or transit district) for an entire academic year.

Some of the distinguishing features of the SCY model of engaged learning include the scale and intensity of the partnership, the place-based and multi-disciplinary nature of the program, and a focus on advancing local sustainability. The large-scale approach provides a wide range of benefits for students, faculty, universities, and communities.

The SCY model has been adopted by more than 15 colleges and universities around the country, including the University of Minnesota, where the Resilient Communities Project (RCP) was launched in 2012 after staff attended the First Annual SCY Conference. Now in its third year of operation, RCP typically matches 15-30 community-identified projects with 30+ courses across dozens of departments and disciplines engaging 400+ students to work with a single community partner each year.

Learn more about SCYP at the SCI webpage.

https://sci.uoregon.edu/sustainable-city-year-program

What people are saying about SCYP

• “Perhaps the most comprehensive effort by a U.S. university to infuse sustainability into its curricula and community outreach” – The New York Times
• “One of higher education’s most successful and comprehensive service-learning programs” – The Chronicle of Higher Education
• 2015 Ashoka U-Cordes Innovation Award – recognizes top educational approaches in social entrepreneurship within higher education

Attend the training conference:
April 12-14, 2015, Minneapolis, Minnesota

After three years at the University of Oregon campus in Eugene, this year’s Sustainable City Year Conference is heading to the Midwest! The 2015 SCYP Conference will take place April 12­-14 at the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus and will be hosted by UMN’s Resilient Communities Project (RCP).

The conference will feature workshops facilitated by the founders of the original SCY program- now in its fifth year of building successful sustainability-focused partnerships with local communities. This “replication” training will build capacity and confidence among those intending to implement the SCY model in their home institutions and local community contexts.

Sessions will include:

An introduction to the SCY model, as well as benefits for students, faculty, and community partners who participate

• The nuts and bolts of operating an SCY program
• A view from previous cities that have participated in an SCY partnership
• Launching a pilot-year program

The conference and workshop will be highly engaging, interactive, and participatory. You’ll learn the big idea, implementation strategies, and how to run your program.

We’ve seen great success when multiple people from the same university attend, especially when they also bring a potential city partner as well, and we offer registration discounts for multiple attendees from the same community.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about the conference, please contact Doug Moon at moonx219@umn.edu or 612-625-1729