Engagement Partners

ENVS partnerships offer opportunities for our students to connect to a variety of organizations and make a real-world difference. See below for partners and related recent events.

The ENVS Program cultivates ongoing relationships with a variety of organizational partners, including those listed below. Students in ENVS 295, Environmental Engagement, pursue projects with these partners, and many students follow up on these projects with internships, senior capstone research, and other opportunities. Partners also play a role in ENVS 160, Introduction to Environmental Studies, our annual Environment Across Boundaries Symposium, and other ENVS events.

Some partners below represent issues of environment and natural resources of interest to our students; others represent approaches to conversation and dialogue across difference that are key engagement skills our students cultivate. The breadth of these partners suggests the scope of conversations and actions our students are encouraged to pursue.

Listed below selected partners are links to recent events organized in collaboration with ENVS 295 student teams. 

Partners

Braver Angels

Braver Angels “bring[s] Americans together to bridge the partisan divide and strengthen our democratic republic.”

C Bar C Ranch

C Bar C Ranch, a working cattle ranch located near Powell Butte in central Oregon, has hosted several recent events bringing together diverse participants to get to know each other and discuss contemporary resource issues affecting rural Oregonians.

Crossing Party Lines

“Crossing Party Lines creates warm and engaging conversations with Americans who see the world differently, to increase tolerance, build community, and encourage civic cooperation.”

GlobalPDX

Global PDX’s mission is to “put Oregon’s community of changemakers on the map as a widely renowned hub inciting positive change around the world. We are uniting the Oregon-based global development community into a thriving, collaborative, and high-impact network of people and organizations with global reach.”

Green Empowerment

“Green Empowerment works with rural communities and partners around the world to improve access to affordable and renewable energy, safe drinking water, sanitation systems, fuel efficient cook stoves and more.”

  • The spring 2021 student team created story maps that display information about Green Empowerment’s projects from the last decade. The story map of Peru will be the framework for how the other projects in each county are presented. 

Healthy Democracy

“Healthy Democracy is a US-based nonpartisan nonprofit that designs and coordinates innovative deliberative democracy programs.”

Hood River Forest Collaborative

“The Hood River Forest Collaborative (aka ‘Stew Crew’) is a diverse group of local and regional stakeholders focused on the management of the Hood River Ranger District of the Mt. Hood National Forest.”

Klamath River Renewal Corporation

“The Klamath River Renewal Corporation, or KRRC, is a private, independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization formed by signatories of the amended Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement, or KHSA. KRRC is part of a cooperative effort to re-establish the natural vitality of the Klamath River so that it can support all communities in the Basin… and oversee removal of four hydroelectric dams on the river.”

Narrative 4

“Narrative 4 is a global organization driven by artists, shaped by educators and led by students. Our core methodology, the story exchange, is designed to help students understand that their voices, stories, actions and lives matter, and that they have the power to change, rebuild and revolutionize systems.”

Oregon Farm Bureau

“Oregon Farm Bureau is a grassroots, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization representing the depth and breadth of Oregon’s diverse agricultural community. We give a voice to farm and ranch families at the capitol, in the courts, and within regulatory agencies.”

Oregon Humanities

“Oregon Humanities is committed to bringing people together across differences of background, experience, and belief. Each year, we offer hundreds of public conversations and programs across the state, train and support dozens of discussion facilitators, and award grants and fellowships that help people connect, reflect, and cultivate a stronger sense of agency in their communities.”

PCUN

“PCUN has advocated for Oregon farmworkers and working Latinx families, working tirelessly to empower these communities to understand and take action against systematic exploitation and its harmful effects.”

  • 2021 Lewis & Clark students joined PCUN for two radio broadcasts to discuss climate change and wildfires in Oregon and how they affect farmworkers and Latinx working families. They defined what climate change is and how extreme weather events can be linked to climate change. The wildfires that occurred throughout the West coast last year were discussed as an example of these extreme weather events that have drastic effects on Latinx families and the farm working community. The programs were presented in Spanish and were broadcast on Radio Poder.  Listen to program I (part 1, part 2 and part 3; or read the transcript).  Listen to program II (part 1, part 2 and part 3; or read the Spanish transcript or the English transcript.)

Portland Harbor Community Coalition

“Founded in 2012, we are a group of individual community groups elevating the most-impacted groups (Native Americans, African-Americans/Black, immigrants, and houseless) in the billion dollar federal cleanup of the eleven mile Willamette River “Superfund” site, Portland Harbor.

Perfect Balance USA

“Perfect Balance USA is a Central Oregon based Nonprofit Organization working to educate the community on how your food gets from the farm to the table, and how to collectively preserve water for our ecosystems, endangered species and farmland.”

Rural Engagement and Vitality Center

The mission of the Rural Engagement and Vitality Center (REV) is to create partnerships between Eastern Oregon University and entities in eastern Oregon to enhance the vitality of the region and develop tomorrow’s rural workforce and leaders.

Sustainable Northwest

“Sustainable Northwest brings people, ideas, and innovation together so nature, local economies, and rural communities can thrive.”

West Multnomah County Soil & Water Conservation District

The mission of WMCSWCD is “to provide resources, education, and expertise to inspire people to actively improve air and water quality, fish and wildlife habitat, and soil health.”

  • 2021 students made this site where members of the LC community can learn more about native and non-native plants on campus and get instructions for an interactive plant walk that features these species.