Overall Rating Bronze - expired
Overall Score 34.31
Liaison Julia Angstmann
Submission Date Oct. 10, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Butler University
EN-10: Community Partnerships

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Julia Angstmann
Director
Center for Urban Ecology at Butler University
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability :
Center for Urban Ecology Farm

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? :
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe?:
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus?:
The partnership supports at least one, but not all three, dimensions of sustainability

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners in strategic planning, decision-making, implementation and review? (Yes, No, or Not Sure):
No

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability, including website URL (if available) and information to support each affirmative response above:

The CUE (Center for Urban Ecology) is a center in the Biology department at Butler
University that serves as a conduit for urban ecology and sustainability projects.  All the
partners I listed in the Excel file are active partners with the CUE on a variety of projects.
So we are the lead or collaborator on all of the projects listed.  The sustainable
agriculture project is linked to the CUE Farm (campus farm) that is a part of a larger
network of urban farms in Indianapolis called IndyGrown (includes the farms: Growing
Places Indy, Big City Farms, Southside Farms, and Pleasant Street Produce). This
collective strives to educate the Indianapolis community about the importance of local,
sustainable foods for ecological health, food access, and food system resiliency through
tours, educational workshops, and selling/donating foods to the Indianapolis
community.
https://www.butler.edu/cuefarm


Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (2nd partnership):
Farm Incubator Project

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (2nd partnership):
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (2nd partnership):
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus? (2nd partnership):
The partnership simultaneously supports social equity and wellbeing, economic prosperity, and ecological health

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners in strategic planning, decision-making, implementation and review? (2nd partnership) (Yes, No, or Not Sure):
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability, including website URL (if available) and information to support each affirmative response above (2nd partnership):

The Farm Incubator project was initiated through a collaboration between the Marion
County Purdue Extension Service and the CUE at Butler University. The original goal of
the project was to convert vacant city lots into a physical space with infrastructure for
farm entrepreneurs to test the waters for new urban agriculture business ideas. The primary stipulation in the project is that farmers follow standard sustainable, organic
farming practices to foster ecological improvements on the site (better pollination,
healthier soils). Butler hosts an Americorp VISTA fellow from the School for Public and
Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington. Her job is to build community
capacity in impoverished neighborhoods. Once the project began, the site was chosen,
the United Northwest Neighborhood (near 25th & MLK) a well-known food desert. By
engaging the community, in collaboration with the Kheprw Insitute and Groundworks
Indy (both youth mentorship programs), the project has really moved from a
entrepreneurial opportunity to an integrated project where neighborhood farmers are
trying to address food access issues while educating youth on the importance of local,
sustainably grown food to benefit the environment, social equity and wellbeing, and
promote resiliency of the community to future food barriers by controlling the food
system locally.


Name of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (3rd partnership):
Indy Wildlife Watch

Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (3rd partnership):
Yes

Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (3rd partnership):
Multi-year or ongoing

Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus? (3rd partnership):
The partnership supports at least one, but not all three, dimensions of sustainability

Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners in strategic planning, decision-making, implementation and review? (3rd partnership) (Yes, No, or Unknown):
No

A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability, including website URL (if available) and information to support each affirmative response above (3rd partnership):

The Urban Wildlife and Habitat Conservation project called Indy Wildlife Watch was
initiated by two Butler Biology faculty and the CUE after being approached by the
Lincoln Park Zoo which has been conducting a similar project in Chicago. We are now a
first partner of a growing network of cities monitoring urban wildlife. We selected sites
along two urban-to-rural transects where motion-triggered cameras were strapped to
trees.  These cameras capture images of any wildlife that is utilizing that site.  We are
trying to understand how urban wildlife moves around the city, what types of habitat
they use (parks, lawns, cemeteries, golf courses, etc), and how this varies with species.
Ultimately, the captured images will be placed on a citizen science website (similar to
www.chicagowildlifewatch.org) where anyone can go online and analyze the images for
us. Our partnership with Indy Parks allows us to place cameras in
Indianapolis city parks. We also strategically placed
cameras at K12 schools where possible to stimulate student participation in data
collection and analysis of images. We have worked with Newfields and the Indy Zoo to place 2 cameras at each of their sites and we have 8 schools that have cameras at their schools. We are in discussion with the Indy Zoo to have an on-site kiosk about placing a kiosk in their buildings so visitors can view the images and help us analyze them as a citizen science webpage for the project.


A brief description of the institution’s other community partnerships to advance sustainability:
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The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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