Gaia University Partners with Portland's City Repair Project

Gaia University is thrilled to announce the launch of a new degree pathway offered in partnership with the City Repair Project in Portland, Oregon. The City Repair pathway will be open to both Masters and Bachelors Associates. City Repair members will serve as specialist advisors for Associates, and will be intensively involved in the first orientation for the program, which takes place in Portland in May, 2010. The creation of the City Repair pathway is the first step in the formation of an independent Portland-based Regional Center of Gaia University.

City Repair facilitates artistic and ecologically oriented placemaking through projects that honor the interconnection of human communities and the natural world. Founded in 1996, City Repair has become an inspiring example of what is possible when communities decide to change their connection to their environment.

One of the most tangible manifestations of the City Repair Project is the Village Building Convergence (VBC), held every summer in Portland. VBC is a ten-day event during which hundreds of people gather to design and implement building projects in communities throughout the greater Portland metro area. The VBC will serve as the content workshop required for the Gaia University degree program.

“Building projects can give a community just enough momemntum to reach the tipping point at which they really begin to engage and communicate. Out of this, new social alliances are born,” says City Repair organizer Matt Bibeau. “People are shocked to find that most of the skills and resources needed for any project they want to implement can be found within a couple of blocks of their house, in their very own neighborhood.” The convergence also includes large community meals, live music and dancing, as well as local and international guest speakers.

Matt Bibeau is part of the core team of City Repair actionists who will be earning degrees with Gaia U through the OLE pathway (Organizing Learning for Eco-Social Regeneration). “This partnership with Gaia University is exactly what I’ve been waiting for my entire life,” he says. “Currently our effectiveness is limited mainly to Portland. The Gaia University partnership is an amazing opportunity to train leaders in placemaking who can then go out and create effective autonomous City Repair groups in their own communities. It will also create a framework for thorough documentation of the process and the creation of a ‘toolkit’ for people doing this work in different places and contexts.”

For more in-depth information about City Repair and placemaking, you can read City Repair’s Placemaking Guidebook, which can be purchased online here. The book outlines some of City Repair’s methodology and features various projects they’ve engaged with over the years. The collaboration between Gaia U and City Repair offers a unique opportunity for Associates to be trained by people with concrete experience in effectively transforming urban communities.