December 13, 2016

2017-2018 Municipal Partner Request for Proposals

University of Washington’s Livable City Year Program is looking for municipal partners to host the 2017-2018 program

The University of Washington’s Livable City Year initiative is now accepting proposals from cities, counties, special districts and regional partnerships to be partners during the 2017-2018 academic year.

UW Livable City Year (UW LCY) connects University of Washington faculty and students with a municipal partner for a full academic year to work on projects fostering livability. The municipal partner will identify a selection of projects in their community that could be addressed by UW LCY courses. Areas of focus include environmental sustainability, economic viability, population health, and social equity, inclusion and access.

Municipal partners will benefit from tens of thousands of hours of research and study by UW students and faculty members across a variety of disciplines. Partners provide financial support and staff time to support the program. The full details can be found in the Request for Proposals document. Proposals must be submitted by Feb. 15, 2017.

The UW LCY program launched in Fall 2016 with the City of Auburn as the inaugural municipal partner. In the fall quarter alone, students in six different classes worked on 10 projects in Auburn, including addressing homelessness issues, building awareness of city values, understanding wastewater discharge, managing pet waste, and evaluating the success of a buy-local program. The UW LCY program expects to work on 15-20 projects in Auburn throughout the year, and students working on each project will deliver reports and recommendations City leadership.

The UW LCY program will host live webinars on January 19 and February 9 for interested communities to discuss the program and the proposal process. Details on these webinars can be found here.

The UW’s Livable City Year program is led by faculty directors Branden Born with The Department of Urban Design and Planning and Jennifer Otten with the School of Public Health, in collaboration with UW Sustainability, Urban@UW and the Association of Washington Cities, and with foundational support from the College of Built Environments and Undergraduate Academic Affairs.  For more information please contact UW LCY at uwlcy@uw.edu.

The full Request for Proposals document is available below as a PDF document. Interested municipal partners can see this sample list of projects proposed by our inaugural partner, the City of Auburn, for the first Livable City Year.