The Educational Partnerships for Innovation in Communities Network, or EPIC-N, is the collection of universities running university-community partnership models that we have trained based on SCI’s Sustainable City Year Program. SCI is thrilled to announce that there are now 27 universities, including the Technion in Israel, implementing this model of translational science, community impact, and workforce development.
As an example of one of the newest programs, UO’s west coast neighbor, the University of Washington launched Livable City Year in September, following a fast track to implementation given that the whole program was conceived as an idea just last February. To get from idea to implementation, UW participated in EPIC-N’s 5th Annual Sustainable City Year Conference and Workshop, hosted by San Diego State’s Sage Project, last March. There, UW staff and members of a potential pilot city partner learned how to organize and effectively implement a program like our SCYP program, but customized to the local institutional and community context. UW joined other interested start-ups, as well as established EPIC-N programs and their past city partners to get the nuts and bolts of organizing quickly, as well as how to maximize the larger community and educational impacts the model offers. Representatives from the EPA, NSF, and the Wells Fargo Foundation also participated in the conference, helping to share their vision of how EPIC-N can scale its collective efforts to transform higher education, create positive impact in communities, and give students the skills and opportunities they desperately seek. Many thanks to the Wells Fargo Foundation and the Knight Foundation for their financial support of the conference as well.
Looking Forward | What’s Next for EPIC-N?
There are several upcoming opportunities to follow in UW's footsteps to gain the tangible skills and tips to start a new program, including the 6th annual EPIC-N Conference, hosted by Texas A&M's Texas Target Communities on March 20-22, 2017! Registration is now open! And if you would like to be an early sponsor of this conference or want to be kept informed of the developing details, please enter your name here or contact Marc Schlossberg at SCI (schlossb@uoregon.edu).
Register for EPIC-N Conference as an Individual Register for EPIC-N Conference as a Group
Additional upcoming training opportunities include a one-day workshop in conjunction with the New Partners for Smart Growth Conference on February 1, 2017 and a training workshop in conjunction with the Resilient Cities 2017 Conference in May 2017 in Bonn, Germany.
Going Global | EPIC-N Around the World
In November, the EPIC model was shared with the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, as part of the University of Oregon's and SCI's hosting of APRU's sustainability activities. We are looking forward to developing training workshops for universities and communities along the Pacific Rim over the next several years. And EPIC-N's Jessica Barlow (SDSU) recently represented EPIC-N at the UN Habitat III conference in Ecuador, resulting in new developing relationships with the United Nations and the World Health Organization to explore how the EPIC Framework could be adopted and adapted for institutions and communities of developing countries.
Help Us Be Appropriately Ambitious | Marc Schlossberg
When we say we want to transform the way higher education functions in society around the world, we mean it! There are tremendous rewards that emerge from this work, but we need the resources to do it. We are now looking to scale up our training, increase our support efforts, and find the resources to hire professional staff, all to better meet this demand. It is extremely exciting! If you want to help us scale up this work, contact Marc Schlossberg at SCI (schlossb@uoregon.edu) and learn more about EPIC-N here.