University of Virginia
EN-10: Community Partnerships

UVA and its surrounding community have established a transformative partnership through the (1) LUEPC (Land Use and Environmental Planning Committee, (2) Planning Commissions (City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County), (3) Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO - 5 County area), and the (4) Master Planning Council (UVA).
Senior UVA planning staff are appointed to the City and County (1 each) Planning Commissions to have active knowledge and an active role in shaping each community. The time invested in preparing for and attending Planning Commission meetings is significant, and each community gets the benefit of representation by the University. In exchange, UVA has a Master Planning Council(MPC) that consists of Vice Presidential UVA staff that addresses planning at and in the context of the University. MPC is attended by appointed members of the City and County Planning Commissions in addition to the Chief Planning staff for each of those entities. Senior UVA planning staff attend the local metropolitan planning organization (MPO) Technical and Policy Board meetings and play a role in guiding the large scale transportation process for our larger community area and transportation network. This high-level coordination within the political network of the community leads to an extraordinary level of coordination in town gown relationships and successful partnerships for the community.
This practice has been underway for over 20 years and UVA provides staff and financial support to this effort on an annual basis. UVA developed a centralized website for LUEPC in 2019, rather than information provided on each agency (City, County, University) website as has been the practice in the past.
http://vapacc.org/

Over 2019 and 2020, the City of Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and the University of Virginia are each making new commitments for climate action. Building upon our region’s history of commitments to sustainability and climate action, sustainability staff from the three organizations are collaborating on community outreach. Community engagement and public input are an important part of the collaborative process, and we invite the community to participate to help advance climate action in our region.
https://www.charlottesville.gov/294/Climate-Action-Together
www.climateactiontogether.org

UVA has started a new practice and Office for a community partnership emphasizing sustainability through equity and diversity in our community. The partnership is designed to connect faculty, students and communities to mutually beneficial research and teaching programs. The partnership reflects current and ongoing community based initiatives, and allows users to search for associated projects and community partners. Engaged UVA was launched by the Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Outreach in 2017 in an effort to highlight information on the community engaged programs already underway at the University. Community members can see the array of current and ongoing programs.
https://engageduva.virginia.edu/

As part of the University Sustainability Committee, the Civic Engagement Subcommittee develops programs to engage the University and surrounding community:
Civic Engagement is a core component of UVA’s mission statement and the UVA sustainability statement – calling upon the UVA community to educate ethical leaders and to build a collaborative and diverse community to ensure this and future generations have access to bountiful resources. At UVA, civic engagement aims to build an inclusive culture through partnerships across the community to identify projects both on and off Grounds that conserve resources while investing in people.