to create a scope of work and budget, and to implement the project within a specific timeline. The client, in turn, is charged for the full cost of the project.
The Metro Center core staff is relatively small, but the individual project teams are comprised of scholars and practitioners from WSU colleges, schools, and departments across all five of its campuses, and its Extension offices, to leverage WSU as a leader in metropolitan issues. The Center is a conduit of the knowledge and experience of WSU and aims to strengthen connections between university expertise and research and communities. This partnership allows the Metro Center to create solutions to cultivate new, innovative ideas, and unique actionable results for each of its clients.
Metro Center projects include:
• Yakima Equity Study Analysis – an evaluation and statistical analysis of data to inform the equitable allocation of city resources.
• Everett CHART: Financial Return and Program Effectiveness – an evaluation framework and outcome goals for a program designed to address the needs of the city ’s most vulnerable residents.
• Stanwood and Camano Island Community Survey – helping the city implement a targeted outreach approach to engaging community in strategic planning.
• Age-Friendly Housing Assessment – providing an assessment and analysis, plus strategy recommendations, to allow a diverse population of older adults age in the home and community of their choosing.
• Measuring Changes in the Restaurant Industry – tracking policy and operational changes in the restaurant industry as it responds to increases in the minimum wage.
In addition to offering applied research services, the Metro Center convenes local leaders, partners and fellow urban Extension colleagues at summits and trainings to help to address the broader needs of growing metropolitan regions. They include:
• National Urban Extension Conference – the Metro Center provided leadership as WSU hosted the 2019 conference, the only national gathering of Extension professionals who serve our cities.
• Sustainable Urban Systems – funded by the National Science Foundation, this gathering of 40 invited experts identified key challenges facing ‘megapolitan’ regions and their adjacent communities and natural spaces, and how to improve urban systems sustainability.
• Poverty Immersion Workshops – helping agencies and organizations take concrete actions to assess, plan, implement and evaluate sound policy and system changes to better serve low-income clients.
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