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The EVDS-Federation partnership finished yesterday with students displaying their final year's work to the community. This partnership has been an amazing success with residents, stakeholders and students who benefited from the collaboration.  Hear from  Ali of the Bridgeland Riverside Community Association on her experience below: 

The collaboration between FCC, Stantec, University of Calgary EVDS Program and Bridgeland Community Association on an urban design plan for our community was an overwhelming success.  The work the University of Calgary EVDS program has done with our community has been invaluable.  As a volunteer, community based organization we do not have the planning expertise, time, skill or financial resources to undertake large scale planning.  Our community is facing unprecedented pressure from growth, revitalization and development.  We were feeling a lot of pressure without the resources to proactively respond.  The University was able to provide us with research and education on best practices and technical information to support strategies for revitalization by gathering statistics/ background information to direct data-driven change.  Further, the visual mapping, 3-D models and other planning tools the University has are far beyond anything the community has the skill for or has access to.  Extensive community engagement with stakeholders was able to happen in a non-biased way that could not otherwise have happened.  Without the help of the University, Federation of Calgary Communities and sponsorship by Stantec there is no way we could have achieved this level of change and improvement to our community.  The legacy this project will leave in our community will be felt for the next 20 years.  I would highly encourage this type of partnership with communities and the EVDS program in the future. 

The Federation of Calgary Communities and the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Environmental Design (EVDS) partnership focuses on providing students and communities the opportunity to collaborate on projects.If your community is interested in participating in the upcoming 2016-2017 year, contact us!