NWSA helps Portland’s Community Watershed Stewardship Program earn the first National Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Award for Campus-Community Collaboration (JRCPA)
President Jimmy Carter and Mrs. Rosalynn Carter announced on June 3, 2008 that Portland’s Community Watershed Stewardship Program (CWSP) is the inaugural winner of the US-National Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Award (JRCPA) for Campus-Community Collaboration. Portland State University (PSU) and the City of Portland were recognized for the achievement at the concluding plenary session of the annual meeting of the Corporation for National and Community Service. Along with PSU and Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services (BES), Northwest Service Academy is a major partner in this program, and the AmeriCorps component. Over the past decade, Portland’s CWSP has engaged 112 community-based organizations in greater Portland, mobilizing over 27,000 community volunteers to donate a quarter million hours to install 80,000 native plants and restore 50 acres of watershed along two miles of river. Individual projects have been supported by 700 PSU students working as part of class projects, resulting in two master’s theses and three research articles.
Portland State University Professor Barry Messer, Principal Investigator of Portland’s CWSP, says much of the credit for the recognition and success of the program belongs to NWSA:
“NWSA has been an invaluable partner in the work of the Community Watershed Stewardship Program," said Messer. The NWSA AmeriCorps service volunteers that have been placed on the program have made outstanding contributions in working with the community partners on this program. The staff at NWSA have been great to work with over the years. The recognition that PSU and BES recently received for the CWSP as the first national recipient of the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Award is an honor that is deservedly shared with NWSA. Thank you for your years of support and I look forward to many more.”
Public Information - June 16, 2008