and and resilience on the previous page what we're what we're talking about here and what you're really sorry flecked in the projects that are same called was interested in is a real commitment an interest in sustainability and resilience so when we're talking about sustainability we're thinking about interconnectedness we're thinking about about the connections across systems from infrastructure to help to people to social to equity to housing to transportation it thinking explicitly about the connections across those systems in the community we're also thinking about the interdependence that exists among what we traditionally call the three e's environment activity and economy or social systems as well and it's really about taking a long term perspective thinking about the long term implications of the decisions that we're making today in communities and the effects that they'll have down the road on future generations and even beyond and we think about resilience what we're talking about is really adaptive or responsiveness to changing circumstances so there are many things that are changing in the world around us we have changing demographics we have changing economic system we have changing politics being explicit and really getting ahead of those changes is what resilient communities project is about and i think that's one thing that was really reflected in the projects that are st paul identified just a consciousness of the changes that are happening around them and really thinking strategically about how to respond to those changes and really position the city of the rest all for the future so how does it work we select one community the year through a competitive process and it was competitive this year there were seven proposals that came in from communities in the twin cities metro area and our same paul clearly rose to the top i think they had a great commitment to sustainability a very very clearly identified set of projects that related to existing plans and policies and were just very coherently and really effectively and persuasively described as a clear sense of the characters that they may be able to bring to the table and that really created a lot of excitement to not just do valuable work here but really extend it even beyond the community of our state policy we were very very excited to select near st paul this year from the seven proposal so again how it works is that the partner community in that proposal identifies local project priorities thinking about what is what is the community want to accomplish in the next year what are some key priorities that are going to help move the ball down the field in that community in terms of sustainability and resilience nora st paul came up with about twenty projects in the proposal that they submitted to us read a huge range of different issues and we'll show you the list in a few minutes based on that list the community works with resilient communities project to scope the projects figure out what what what what what the project looks like what are the particular needs what are the outcomes that the community wants to achieve who are some potential partners and stakeholders to bring to the table and then we at the university and resilient communities project do the matchmaking matching up expertise that exists in courses among students who are taking classes at the university who will then complete that work as part of their regular course we're doing relevant work in in the community and producing products that are going to be readily usable by the community  maps or data or analyses or best practice studies a whole range of different products coming out of this so there are two basic objectives with resilient communities project and one is to very much locus on addressing those local priorities and that's why at the outset we're asking to communities to tell us what are the priorities project that you want to work on we then work with the community to respond to those in the most effective way that we can really ensuring that we deeply understand the context for the projects the history associated with them the staff and resources data and a whole range of issues that may be associated with us just doing a good job in actually tailoring the work that we're doing to the community and our state law we want to bring the best available approaches that balance environment and equity and economy those three e's that we talked about and i think that's that's an opportunity that we have in particular with students who are really really interested in these issues of sustainability who want to do it in a practical way and i think this creates a tremendous you for that to actually and then the second objective in addition to the work that we're doing in communities we're also providing a great opportunity for students that in many cases they're not getting in that is real world opportunities to gain learning related to sustainability and also again learning about how to work with communities and how to really tailor their work and understand local context understand what's going on in those communities and understand the perspectives of staff and the public and do work that really responds to local contacts they're gaining practical knowledge about communities and also the issues that they're dealing with and they're learning how to produce products that are not just for an academic audience before a real audience of decision makers elected officials city staff and beyond and i think we're really interested in training the next generation of practitioners we want to be training students who can go out into the field and do this work of sustainability and resilience and bring new perspectives to the field and sort of bringing in this bigger perspective in the in in the work that we're doing and in our state oh so just to acknowledge a little bit in terms of resources we have support for the resilient community project from a couple of research centers and research and outreach to it was at the university of minnesota institute on the environment and the center for urban regional affairs they provided direct support as well as staff support for this and they've been tremendous supporters in making this program buyable allowing us to make connections in hansing our visibility at the university and i want to just acknowledge them at this point for the support that they've provided us over the last couple of years and also acknowledge the sistine ability faculty network which is a network of faculty at the university of minnesota who are interested in  vancing sustainability education and really see this kind of work in communities as critical to the to the way that we do education and sustainability we can't be teaching about sustainability if we're not providing students with opportunities to do this work in communities in a way that's grounded and it's practical and last before i turn it over to nate to talk a little bit about about more st paul in the projects that are coming up i want to just highlight a few of the staff who've been involved in resilient communities project and also a professor in the urban regional planning program at the humphrey school at the university of minnesota mike greco and i'm serves as the r c p program program manager and he's also the managing editor at the center for urban and regional affairs nancy ferber who is in the back and taking photos and doing lots of other things for us today is our new program coordinator and also a graduate assistant in the from preschool and it's a two on the environment at the university of minnesota and then be colombo is around the wreckage site there it is our outgoing r c p program coordinator and also a program associate at the institute on the environment and i also want to acknowledge in particular madeline de fer who helped at the front desk today she's she's a student who works at the institute on the environment and also molly bruce who's not here who helped a lot of coronating this event and provided a trend a tremendous amount of support related to getting this set up and and worked a lot with lori who i want to acknowledge as well who has been fantastic to work with and also dozens of faculty and many of whom are in the room if you're a faculty member who's going to work on the r c p project this year and i stand in view here and many more will be joining us as the year goes on and then hundreds of students and i think there are a few here today obviously not hundreds of them here in the room but hundreds of students across all of the dozens of classes at the university so if you're a student who's going to of their vision in their foresight that we find ourselves here this afternoon but i had to think a little bit further about where are the cultural to save fuel because come from within our community and it actually dates all the way back to him recast one of our visionary leaders and he really put the city on a tremendous trajectory to be able to think about hold court is to have good homes within our community good jobs within our community and quality holding in our community and by instilling that with the residents of our community to be able to  very excited to be working with the university and certainly we look at this is an opportunity for us to take another step for another hundred twenty six years of sustainability within morsy hall and we did identify twenty one projects within or at the cation everything from live work housing how we start to take a look at new redevelopment strategies for underutilized parcels within our community how we start to focus on the branding effort for never say paul not only how we focus on branding within a community but how we bring folks from the outside to names to your st paul whether be businesses do developers or residents looking to reside in our community and we're going to be looking at how we utilize our electric utility making sure that it continues to be a great sustainable operation for the city of moore of st paul and how we can better utilize that for our residents we're looking at projects from possibly looking into our fiber optics if we are able to find some matches for that and i know that i'm need to talk a little bit about the problem which is that we believe have to date and we're going to continue to look at opportunities for the spring semester as well as some other items that we're looking at our potential public art of how we continue to integrate that within the city of st paul as well some environmental initiatives how we utilize the park systems that we have how we market those parks systems and make sure that they're sustainable and ready to use for the next generations over the next hopefully hundreds of years that  university to this community to interact with folks who really want this partnership and really see a lot of benefits associated with it i think we're also really excited at this hour in chicago the university side because of the diversity of projects there's a tremendous range of resilience a community based work across the university even in areas like a t m and human resources in other areas where we're not really necessarily doing this kind of community based work so we're excited sort of for selfish reasons in that we can extend issues related to trail connections and environmental education associated with natural resources in the community we have work related to green energy neighborhood identities nate mentioned fire uptick as well and where there are development of underutilized par university from housing studies and engineering and law school urban and regional planning environmental education forestry agronomy social work recreation resource management and old watch of others that are there and in many cases workers in the banks and faculty and on the resilience communities credit program manager in a couple of minutes they get a look across these projects think what's really exciting and i think that really gives the staff in this community and the elected officials and others in this community passion is that there's a clear sense of what they want to accomplish and i think there's a poor basic things sort of categories for these projects and one is just an attention to responding to changing conditions and one of the things that was really impressive in the proposal this is a good sense of what's going on around th the future another key area that we're seeing kind of as a trend or sort of topics that that kind of crises project is really advancing community having to this is a community that's changed over the years the communities around it have changed the environment has changed and i think the city is really really being proactive thinking about how can this community be competitive in the new economy and in the way that other communities are dealing with competitiveness and changing their economies and really thinking infrastructure they've done a lot of work related to environment and a whole range of areas that a lot of companies are really getting into and i think to be able to take that work that they've already started to get to the next level is a tremendous opportunity with these projects and to do it quickly and with and and then amount of bodies and hours to be spent on the next year is really exciting and then the last one is engaging residents and safely excuse look at recipes projects or the details of them that are in the proposal many many of them have components that were about better connecting with the public that are connecting to stakeholders providing opportunities for the public to be involved in decision making they get to community gardens and public art living streets and a whole range of other topics so i mean it's never too late is going to highlight some of the projects that it's mike royko on the program manager for the resume communities project so it's my very fun job to work with the city take the list of projects they've come up with and match those to courses at the university of minnesota and that's table but it's a pretty comprehensive list of the projects the courses that we've matched with them thus far and what those courses are doing so if you want more detailed information about the projects i'd suggest you pick one of these up on your way out and certainly visit our website throughout the year follow us on twitter will be providing updates about the projects on an ongoing basis throughout the year but i did want to talk about a couple of the projects and again recognize some of the faculty and students who are here with us today  o who are here today and recognize the work they're going to be doing krista mentioned responding to changing conditions and like many communities across the state the city of moore st paul is dealing with a rapidly aging population  most cities populations are trending older these days and so one of the projects that i want to talk about is the aging in place project and the community is very interested in making sure that your st paul is a place where as residents age they feel like they can stay here whether that's staying in their own home making improvements or updates to it in order to be able to continue to live in their home or moving somewhere else but staying in the community and so this project is one that's been really exciting just because of the number of different departments in courses we've been able to identify that can provide input on this project so as i mentioned people's names faculty members were students if you just briefly stand up in all of just say a little bit about each course when bruin is in here she was there she is lynn's teaching a course called promoting independence in housing and community and her students this fall semester will be doing a needs assessment looking at what some of the needs are that residents have related to aging in place and then making recommendations policy recommendations regulatory changes the city might consider to help residents age in place lisa eds is teaching a course in the gerontology department her students will be looking at multi disciplinary perspectives on aging so they come from various backgrounds public health public policy some are in medical fields and th looking at perspectives on aging what it means to age what it means to age in place pacifically what it means to age here and providing recommendations based on their disciplinary background for helping residents age and place stacy  teacher is in the school social work she was here earlier i think it had to leave and should be teaching a course called practices on health and ageing and her students will actually be doing in home assessments with residents in the city who volunteer to participate helping them to walk through their home and think about what it is about their physical environment some of their social needs health needs educational needs caretaking needs are where there are gaps basically that the city  or community partners social services could help to fill so that gives you an idea of how we take a project we work with the city to think about more broadly what the issues are behind the project that they've proposed and then do what we can to find courses that will meet our all who needs some of those projects advancing community competitiveness that's one particular area where i think we've got probably the greatest range of different kinds of projects not all of them are listed up here i just want to talk about to the community identity and branding project is really the city's effort to think about its historic identity its own it's a working class community it's a community with an industrial manufacturing history it's has a walk going for it and a lot of things that can really make it competitive in the new economy and finding ways to sort of remark itself rebranded self to be competitive but also to think about how to create a community identity that residents can embrace so they see this as a place in which they're rooted again a place where they want to stay where they want to age and really have a real deep sense of what it means to be a nurs design department and so they will be looking at creating some kind of a new graphic identity a new whoa whoa that incorporates the snowman that's been around one of the things we've been told over and over and over and over again you must keep this new man so they will have a challenge to find creative ways to work the snowman into a different kind of design and this will be a design that could be used for signage that can be used for the entryway signage as you come into the community but can also be used on things like the website marketing materials that city produces so again there's sort of this common brand that everyone recognizes immediately as we are saint paul brother to sing will be teaching a course in design thinking in the spring that will then follow up on some of the work that's been done in the fall and her students will be taking a look at sort of how one thinks about design how one thinks about branding and thinks about identity and really picking it apart through a very interactive process that will involve residents coming to class city staff members of what that officials to really sort of react throughout the process to different types of does signs that students come up  other project going to talk about his downtown revitalization this one is focused very much in the downtown core of our st paul here on seventh street as mayor he mentioned there have been some businesses that have left town certainly others that have relocated within town core making sure that it's a more walkable area and also identifying each businesses that the community can try to attract to help keep the downtown viable lean munich unless a light year or teaching a course in the spring a capstone course also in urban planning focused on economic development and their students will be looking at the concept of a business improvement district that can help to revitalize the downtown area building on innovation is the third area and here i'd like to talk about the oriented in walkable and friendly place and so the city has implemented a living or has adopted a living streets plan that they now want to implement they want to do that in conjunction with their twenty year capital improvement plan which is how the city invests money  they participate in the process of rethinking their streetscape and see the benefits of that kind of an approach that focuses not just on rebuilding the street but really making it a living landscape and a place where the public can enjoy themselves and holmes is a student in the landscape architecture and master of women in regional planning program a dual degree student will be doing a capstone project so this is the final project he does for his master's degree in his program that will be focused on th sleeping streets policy and plan and he'll be again looking at how to get public engagement but also doing design prototypes for some of the streetscapes that the city might look at as it goes forward with implementing this plan the green energy initiative  is really takes advantage of the fact that the city has its own utility which you probably passed on the way into town for the winter bananas we have a couple courses that we're working on this gene coleman teaches a course in wa school called land use energy the environment  law clinic students will be looking at regulatory and policy changes that the city can adopt to encourage green energy so how can we get residents to think about solar or wind or geothermal businesses as well and what kind of programs the city might think about instituting to encourage these sorts of innovations this is also a good project to point out that we have community partners involved in many of these projects that we have here today from search the clean energy resource teams  in the gob and they will be participating in various ways in these projects we also have film music from minnesota pollution control agency they'll be dissipating on other projects so this is not just a partnership between the university and the city but also reaching out to community partners that have a stake in these projects want to work on these projects and can be brought into the partnership in a constructive way to make sure that the work continues even after  partnership although we understand it's a life on our own so and a fourth area engaging residents and stakeholders just two projects three projects here sorry that i think we talked about environmental education this is the  effort to really help residents understand that they have seen important and significant natural resources right here in north st paul the silver lake area the south would nature reserve and so we have three courses or three projects here i'll talk about angie wang is teaching a course called user experience and design her students will be looking at how to design an educational process kiosks interpretive signage but doing it from the perspective of the user so what w resident want to know about their natural environment to understand that experiencing mary hamis is doing a master's thesis in environmental science policy and management she's going to be focusing her thesis project on the environmental education piece by looking at what residents already know about how they relate to their natural environment so if they live near silver lake which if they think about the way how do they use it what are other ways they might want to use it looking at local parks that same perspective and then should be able to provide the city with recommendations about how to help residents and or stand and appreciate their environment and finally we don't have a representative here but i did want to mention we have a course at the university of minnesota duluth so quite a distance away we'll actually be partnering  two different courses related to this project one this fall that will be looking at a management plan for south wood nature preserve and then a spring course that will be looking at the environmental education piece the civic engagement project looks  at really how does the community how does the city engage with the community what methods to the to do that having to get residents involved and engaged in issues that they're concerned about and we have here to represent this project randy nelson who teaches a course on  methods of evaluate ition her students will be doing an evaluation of the current communications efforts that the city engages in so their newsletter their website through their social media accounts and helping the city think about how it might  rethink those efforts to better engage with residents and family public or claim the city is very interested in using public art as a way to engage residents and we have a faculty member here rosalie alton who is teaching a course in the spring we place provide environmental education maybe doing some kind of a project around the natural areas in the city and really helping again residents to connect to their community so that was a very quick overview of about twelve projects that i could say hours more worth about but again please pick up this is friction outside if you want to know more and we do encourage you to follow the process throughout the year to work on these projects are progressing and as we have additional fosse