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Metro Denver Nature Alliance (Metro DNA):

Collective Impact for Healthy People & Place

Metro DNA (metrodna.org) is a growing coalition of non-profit, government, research, and private sector partners seeking to align nature-based efforts to ensure more equitable access to nature and to promote healthy people, communities, and natural places. Long before Metro DNA’s official launch in 2018, �������ֳ� Professor Susan Daggett and other faculty, staff and students have

• Key Community Partners

  Metro DNA includes over .

• Key Action Areas

  �������ֳ� faculty, staff, and students are advancing urban social-ecological research in Metro Denver through Center for Community Engagement to advance Scholarship and Learning (CCESL) fellowships and class projects involving students and faculty from diverse departments - Geography, Law, Communications, Social Work, Biology, Computer Science, and more.

  If you are a community organization or member of the �������ֳ� Community interested in partnering on urban social-ecological research in Metro Denver, please visit the �������ֳ� ScholarShop.

• Key �������ֳ� Cohort Members

  Professor Susan Daggett, Sturm College of Law

  Dr. Cara DiEnnno, Center for Community Engagement to advance Scholarship and Learning

  Dr. Chad King, The Center for Sustainability

Photovoice

Amplifying Community Voices in Public Policy

Achieving a just and sustainable future requires meaningful, inclusive participation in decision-making. The Center for Community Engagement to advance Scholarship and Learning (CCESL) has developed and facilitated three photovoice workshop series to amplify community voices in public policy formation. Photovoice is a process by which project participants document their lived experiences through photography revolving around a project topic or theme. By exhibiting their photographs at events attended by public officials and other community leaders, participants help decision-makers understand community issues through the eyes of the people who live there.

• Key Community Partners

  CCESL has partnered with the City of Denver to bring PhotoVoice to three place-based community planning initiatives, including the West Area Plan, the North Denver Cornerstone Collaborative, and the Federal Boulevard Vision Zero and Smart City initiatives.

• Key Action Areas

  CCESL continues to build capacity for effective community engagement in public policy with students, staff, faculty, as well as community partners in the public and civic sectors. In addition to Photovoice, CCESL also offers opportunities for dialogue and deliberation through public forums including .

• Key �������ֳ� Cohort Members

  Dr. Cara DiEnno, Center for Community Engagement to advance Scholarship and Learning

  Meghan McCarroll, PhD Candidate - Geography and Community-Engaged Fellow

  Corey Martz, PhD Candidate - Geography and Community-Engaged Fellow

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Measuring Human & Ecological Wellbeing (HEW)

The overwhelming dominance of GDP-based measurements as a proxy for economic success in public consciousness, media, and policy-making has perpetuated economic development focused on profit, too often at the expense of people and planet. As US Presidential Candidate Bobby Kennedy suggested in 1968, GDP “'measures everything except that which makes life worthwhile.” Urban Sustainability Cohort leaders are working with partners in the Denver region (and more broadly in Colorado) to develop a consensus set of measurable indicators of human and ecological wellbeing that can be used to support an economy in service of life and wellbeing for all.

• Key Community Partners

  Ethics & Ecological Economic Forum ()

  Shift Research Lab, Piton Foundation ()

  Metro DNA ()

• Key Action Areas

  The HEW team has been forwarding a conversation among diverse community leaders through its well-received concept paper, engagement with Metro DNA partners, and monthly convenings of the EEE Forum featuring leaders such as the Colorado Trust, Colorado Health Institute, and Natural Capital Solutions, and Denver Regional Air Quality Council.

• Key �������ֳ� Cohort Members

  Dr. Sarah Bexell, Social Work

  Dr. David Carlson, EEE Forum

  Dr. Andrew Mueller, Daniels College of Business -Real Estate

  Dr. Paul Sutton, Geography

Interdisciplinary Sustainability Clinic

Promoting sustainability in our community often requires collective action and collaboration from many disciplines.�� Currently, the law school operates the and , which meets some of the legal needs of community members and organizations working to advance environmental justice and sustainability.�� However, faculty in these programs have identified needs from their community partners for expertise from many disciplines to help empower communities to improve their own sustainability and to advocate for their interests at the state and local level.

• Key Community Partners

  Community partners will be identified once interested faculty, staff, and students at the �������ֳ� have organized and identified areas to focus on, and through �������ֳ�’s Scholar Shop, which connects community organizations and �������ֳ� faculty, staff and students according to their shared interests and priorities.

• Key Action Areas

  Cohort leaders are in the exploratory phase, convening conversations among interested faculty, staff, and students and community members to gauge interest and generate possibilities for a pilot project.A pilot project will explore the role and outcomes that could be provided through a new community clinic. Following the pilot,�� the team will review and reflect on the work and identify whether a more permanent sustainability clinic would be feasible and worthwhile.

• Key �������ֳ� Cohort Members

  Professor Kevin Lynch, Sturm College of Law

  Dr. Chad King, The Center for Sustainability

Institutional Hub for Just & Sustainable Futures

All of the pilot projects are designed to contribute to a just and sustainable future for the Denver region - but what are the institutional structures that can offer long-term support for reciprocal community-university partnerships that promote just, inclusive and thriving communities where people and nature flourish? Urban Sustainability Cohort leaders are working to expand the institutional infrastructure to support a knowledge hub for Interdisciplinary, collaborative, place-based,�� research and curricula. The hub will support faculty and students while building long term relationships with community partners. As the backbone to these projects, this hub will provide an operating framework to develop and enhance interdisciplinary research and curricula for a just and sustainable future.

This work builds on the curricular and research strengths of the Colleges and Schools of �������ֳ�, and is focused on addressing the unique sustainability challenges facing the Denver metro area and the Front Range.

• Key Community Partners

  Through the Urban Sustainability Cohort’s partnership with Metro DNA, �������ֳ� Sustainability now has a physical presence in downtown Denver at The Alliance Center. �������ֳ�’s Scholar Shop helps create introductions with change-makers outside and within �������ֳ� committed to just and sustainable futures.

• Key Action Areas

  Cohort leaders��developed a Knowledge Bridges proposal for a �������ֳ� Institute for a Just & Sustainable Future to bring �������ֳ� Schools and Colleges, interdisciplinary programs, and community partners together to advance solutions at the intersection of economic vitality, environmental quality, and social justice.

• Key �������ֳ� Cohort Members

  Dr. Susan Daggett, Sturm College of Law

  Dr. Cara DiEnno, CCESL

  Dr. Chad King, The Center for Sustainability

  Dr. Rebecca Powell, Geography