UW Plans Resilience Conversations in Five Communities

The University of Wyoming’s Malcolm Wallop Civic Engagement Program has planned a series of Wyoming community resilience conversations in February in Evanston, Lyman, Rock Springs, Rawlins and Saratoga.

These conversations will engage community members in discussions of opportunities and barriers in education, employment and community resilience.

Events are scheduled for:

-- Evanston: Monday, Feb. 6, 6-7 p.m., in the Uinta BOCES 1 Building, Room 203 (1013 W. Cheyenne Drive).

-- Lyman: Tuesday, Feb. 7, 6-7 p.m., at the Lyman Branch Library (129 S. Franklin St.).

-- Rock Springs: Wednesday, Feb. 8, 6-7 p.m., at the Rock Springs Library, Ferrero Room (400 C St.).

-- Rawlins: Thursday, Feb. 9, 5-6 p.m., at the Carbon County Higher Education Center, Room 1 (1650 Harshman St.).

-- Saratoga: Friday, Feb. 10, 11 a.m.-noon, at the Saratoga Public Library (503 W. Elm Ave.).

These conversations are built upon the UW Profiles in Wyoming Resilience Research Project, co-directed by faculty members Jean Garrison and Jason McConnell, of UW’s School of Politics, Public Affairs and International Studies. This project collected underrepresented community perspectives from a broad range of citizen and stakeholder voices, Garrison says.

The community conversations will be facilitated by McConnell.

“By gathering photos and people’s descriptions of these photos and hosting community conversations, we can develop profiles of our communities -- based on local voices -- and better inform state and local programming,” McConnell says. “This brings new voices to the effort to diversify and grow Wyoming’s economy, address workforce development and retention, and leverage educational/training programs to retain our talent and promote community resilience.”

Data from the PhotoVoice project is available to the public on an interactive website supported by a Wyoming DataHub grant at https://surveys.wygisc.org/ResilienceMap/.

For more information about the Malcolm Wallop Civic Engagement Program, visit the website at www.uwyo.edu/wallop or email the program at wallop@uwyo.edu.

The Malcolm Wallop Civic Engagement Program is inspired by former Wyoming U.S. Sen. Malcolm Wallop who, in his distinguished career serving in the U.S. Senate for three terms and in the Wyoming Legislature, is remembered for his commitment to civil discourse, public education and public service. Its programs are made possible by the support of The Tucker Foundation, Rocky Mountain Power Foundation and generous donors.