The Magic of SCYP

The Sustainable City Year Program (SCYP) is a large-scale partnership between universities and communities in Oregon. It works within existing administrative structures of community partners and academia, is a genuine partnership where projects are community-identified or community-approved, is intentionally aimed at improving community quality of life, and can be scaled to partner size and context. The core of the program is matching university courses (students and faculty) with an Oregon city, county, special district, tribe, or partnership of governments for an entire academic year to work on partner-identified projects that are are part of local work plans and goals.

SCYP harnesses the innovation and energy of students and faculty to provide the analysis, bold ideas, and fresh perspectives that help local communities move forward, get unstuck, or get energized to address important context-specific economic, environmental, and social ambitions. We know that cities and communities are staffed with leaders and staff who want to make real change and are passionate about moving their cities into the future; yet we also know that they are often limited by a lack of time, budget, and sometimes knowledge of the latest best practices. And this is the space where SCYP thrives - in essence, the SCYP partnership puts university talent to work helping strengthen Oregon communities.

"Student efforts on these projects inject fresh perspectives into our design processes to help fuel innovation in applied sustainability and expand the benefits for the communities we serve."

- Jeb Doran, TriMet Senior Project Manager

While the primary focus of SCYP is to help tangibly advance Oregon communities, students also benefit more than they normally would in a classroom-only setting. Faculty are also more motivated about their teaching and mentorship. And in the end, our faculty and our community partners are working together to build the next generation workforce, helping train students to enter their professional careers already having insight and experience into local community goals, challenges, and processes, the larger decision-making context of our State, and with the knowledge that they can be part of improving Oregon communities. SCYP is a transformative and exciting experience for everyone involved!