SERVING IOWA
The Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities (IISC) is a campus-wide community engagement initiative that empowers students, faculty, staff, and community partners to co-create mutually beneficial partnerships in pursuit of vibrant, sustainable, and equitable futures.
The program offers essential, energizing, and applicable learning experiences to graduate and upper-level undergraduate students, while simultaneously providing valuable services and substantial outcomes to communities.
Each year, we undertake full partnerships with 1-2 Iowa communities. We listen to our partners' needs and match these with the capacities of the university faculty and departments. Together, we co-develop a list of diverse projects that tap the assets of both the community and our students. Our goal is always to bring high-quality work to our partners, while providing learning opportunities for the next generation of community leaders.
IISC By the Numbers
60+
Iowa communities we've worked with
410
Community projects completed since 2009
200+
UI students working in Iowa communities each year
Discover Our Recent Partnerships
Voices of IISC
My IISC team assisted the Maquoketa City Council in goal setting, updating best practices for governance, and developing onboarding materials so that new elected officials could hit the ground running. As someone from a more urban area, I really appreciated connecting with a part of Iowa that was unfamiliar to me and learning about small town governance. I got so much out of this project and referenced the experienced a lot in job interviews.
The Community Empowerment Law Project (CELP) is staffed by law students working under faculty supervision. Collaboration with IISC and their community partners enables CELP students to better understand the issues, culture, and strengths of rural and small town Iowa; to participate in interdisciplinary work with students from across the university; and to do meaningful work and have an impact beyond Johnson County.
Through this strategic partnership, Pathfinders RC&D has been able to expand its capacity by working directly with UI professors and students who bring interdisciplinary expertise and energy into our region. These students roll up their sleeves, get their hands dirty, and collaborate side-by-side with our communities to accomplish work that would have otherwise taken years, or may never have happened at all.
Full Partnerships
- West Branch 2025-26
- Pathfinders RC&D 2024-25
- West Burlington/Burlington 2024-25
- Dubuque 2023-24
- Bondurant 2023-24
- Clinton 2022-23
- Jackson County 2021-22
- Maquoketa River Watershed Management Authority 2021-22
- Waterloo 2020-21
- Manchester 2020-21
- Keokuk 2019-2020
- Webster City 2018-2019
- Mason City 2016-2018
- East Central Intergovernmental Association 2016-2018
- Sioux City/SIMPCO 2014-2016
- Winneshiek County 2014-2016
- Iowa City 2014-2016
- Cedar Rapids 2013-2014
- Muscatine 2013-2014
- Washington 2013-2014
- Dubuque 2011-2013
What We Offer
Each year, IISC works with 1-2 Iowa communities on full partnerships that include a minimum of 10 major projects. This work is completed by graduate students and upper-level undergraduates, usually as part of a capstone class, and with guidance from a faculty member and a community project lead.
IISC has worked with 25 different UI departments and disciplines, including School of Library & Information Science, English, and Cinematic Arts. Our most frequent campus partners include:
- Civil & Environmental Engineering
- Community Engaged Law Project, College of Law
- Geographical & Sustainable Sciences
- Journalism & Mass Communication
- Marketing Institute, Tippie College of Business
- Public Affairs
- Urban Planning
- Visual arts
- World Languages, Literature, & Culture
For a list of past and potential projects by disciplinary area, visit the Project Types page.
Has IISC worked in your community yet?
In addition to the full partnerships that IISC has completed with the Iowa communities listed to the left, we have also collaborated on stand alone projects with more than 50 additional communities. To learn more about our past work across the state, visit the Projects page of this website.
Meet Some of Our Network
EPIC-N
IISC is a founding member of the Educational Partnerships for Innovation in Communities-Network (EPIC-N). This global nonprofit and its members unite the human capital of universities with local governments and communities to improve the quality of life and social wealth for all involved. Travis Kraus, director of IISC, currently serves on the organization's board.
Civil and Environmental Engineering Senior Design
Senior Design is a cornerstone of IISC partnerships. Each year IISC staff identify and develop 10 to 15 unique, real-world challenges for these soon-to-be engineers. Recent projects that CEE students developed for our partners and which have since been actualized include a redesign of Shelly Park in Manchester; and a pocket neighborhood in Maquoketa.
Office of Community Engagement & Outreach
IISC has a strong relationship with the University of Iowa Office of Community Engagement, which works to facilitate the development of mutually beneficial partnerships between faculty, staff, and students at the University of Iowa with community partners across the state, nation, and world.
Visual Arts
A hallmark of every IISC partnership is a public art project. There are many murals dotting Iowa that were created by a UI student working with IISC, including in Mason City, Clinton, Bondurant, and Waterloo. We've also designed and installed a decorative arch for a park and created a solar sculpture. The 2023-24 partnership with Dubuque culminated with installation of a sculpture created from salvaged playground equipment. See the video above about this ambitious project.
News
Student Law Team Helps Clarify Legal Gray Areas
Final Showcase in Burlington on May 8
