About Livable City Year
Connecting local communities with UW students and faculty, creating benefits for all.
Why Livable City Year?
Many communities lack the capacity to fully address livability goals. UW is a powerhouse of research and innovation on all aspects of livability, but this knowledge isn’t always available to communities. Through Livable City Year, UW faculty and students from multiple disciplines work on high-priority projects identified by our community partners, creating benefits for all involved.
Who are your partners?
Livable City Year works with cities, counties, tribes, and special districts of all sizes and budgets. Our partnerships can have a broad range of timelines and scopes based on community needs.
Who benefits?
The program engages hundreds of students in high-priority projects, creating momentum on real-world challenges while enabling students to serve and learn from communities. Partner communities benefit from bold and applied ideas that propel fresh thinking, improve livability for residents, and support municipal staff.
How does it work?
For an overview of the program model that connects the UW with local governments, watch this video:
What have you done lately?
The LCY program is partnering with the Pacific County Economic Development Council and the City of Granite Falls during the 2024-2025 academic year.
- Learn more about the LCY projects with the Pacific County Economic Development Council
- Learn more about the LCY projects with the City of Granite Falls
Who’s behind LCY?
UW’s Livable City Year (LCY) program is led by faculty co-directors Branden Born (Urban Design and Planning) and Jennifer Otten (Public Health). The program launched in 2016 in collaboration with UW Sustainability and Urban@UW, and with foundational support from the College of Built Environments, the Department of Urban Design and Planning, Undergraduate Academic Affairs, and the Association of Washington Cities.
LCY’s Program Manager is Teri Thomson Randall. The program is modeled after the University of Oregon’s Sustainable City Year Program and is a member of the Educational Partnerships for Innovation in Communities Network.
For more information, email uwlcy@uw.edu.
From left to right: LCY Co-Directors Jennifer Otten and Branden Born, LCY Program Manager Teri Thomson Randall, and 2018-2019 LCY Program Assistant Michelle Abunaja.
