The University of Oregon’s Community Service Center received the 2013 Oregon Chapter of the American Planning Association’s Special Achievement in Planning Award at the OAPA conference in Portland on May 30.

The center provides student-participants with service and professional experience by helping to solve community and regional issues. It links the skills, expertise, and innovation of higher education with local planning, economic development and environmental issues to improve quality of life for Oregon communities and residents.

The center started in 1973, when then-UO faculty member David Povey envisioned a program that linked higher education with local communities to solve pressing community problems. Since then, the center has grown to engage more than 120 students each year in more than 170 projects statewide.

The center’s four core programs are Community Planning Workshop; Resource Assistance for Rural Environments; Oregon Partnership for Disaster Resilience; and Economic Development Administration University Center.

In 2011, the center engaged 4,924 community members, provided 1,018 training hours to community members, presented 241 times at community meetings and engaged 125 students who completed 174 projects for 53 Oregon cities and 34 counties.

The center partners with the UO Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management and the School of Architecture and Allied Arts.

- from the UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts