The West Virginia Redevelopment Collaborative, a program of the Northern WV Brownfields Assistance Center at West Virginia University, is seeking faculty members to participate in a unique service learning opportunity aimed at improving blighted properties in key locations throughout the state.

Faculty members from West Virginia colleges and universities can apply to serve as “Collaborators” on one of eight multi-disciplinary teams matched with West Virginia communities that are facing complex and challenging brownfields projects. The teams will compete for a chance to win one of four $5,000 grants at a one-day grant competition called “Project Buzz” at the WVU Erickson Alumni Center in Morgantown on Friday, Nov. 30.

The WVRC’s Project Buzz is an opportunity for professors from across the state to connect with current redevelopment projects in need of expertise and assistance in a variety of fields. The brownfields projects are more than just economic development projects—they are projects looking for help with branding, community engagement, and visioning, recreational planning, historic preservation, sustainability, legal issues, and more.

The WVRC, an effort funded by the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, is applying its team approach to brownfields redevelopment. The program seeks to identify the common barriers in the redevelopment process and to help communities overcome those barriers by encouraging community members and academic experts to work collaboratively. NBAC Director Patrick Kirby said the Collaborative process successfully matched four teams of faculty and public service experts with community projects throughout the state in 2012 and will continue that success with Project Buzz and a new round of project funding.

“In the past year, our first four WVRC projects have moved forward on plans for a major recreation complex, a community activities park for children, a riverfront redevelopment that will become the hub of a community, and a former pottery factory that has received significant investment from county, state, and federal programs,” Kirby explained. “We are celebrating those successes and selecting our next round of projects at ‘Project Buzz: The Pitch’ – a dynamic, participant driven event which emphasizes competition among community projects, similar to the experience of seeking funding and assistance in the real world.”

Eight West Virginia communities will be invited to have their brownfields projects represented in the Project Buzz event. Four communities will then be selected to receive more than $20,000 in funding as well as the opportunity to collaborate with teams of service providers and faculty who have expertise in a range of disciplines to help them toward their goals.

Participating academic disciplines in the Collaborative include: landscape architecture, business administration, public administration, recreation and tourism planning, and law. Faculty from WVU, Concord University, Davis & Elkins College, as well as the WV Department of Environmental Protection, have participated in the past.

WVRC Coordinator Carrie Station is optimistic that this year’s teams will feature even more diversity of disciplines.

“We had some really great teams in our first round of funding, and we’re hoping to build on their success and commitment by reaching other disciplines and colleges, including historic preservation experts, marketing professionals, and more,” she said. “This is a great opportunity for professors from colleges across the state to find communities in which they can work and conduct their research or class-driven projects.”

Professors interested in attending and participating as Collaborators on Nov. 30 can request more information from Staton at carrie.staton@mail.wvu.edu or (304) 293-7071. Additional information on the WV Redevelopment Collaborative and the 2012 WVRC projects can be found at the program website at www.wvredevelopment.org.

The Northern WV Brownfields Assistance Center, located at the WV Water Research Institute at the National Research Center for Coal & Energy, was created by the WV Legislature to empower communities to plan and implement brownfields redevelopment projects.

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CONTACT: Patrick Kirby, Northern WV Brownfields Assistance Center
304.293.6984; Patrick.Kirby@mail.wvu.edu

Carrie Staton, Northern WV Brownfields Assistance Center
304.293.7071, Carrie.Staton@mail.wvu.edu

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