NEWS RELEASE

Report Cover: Rural Transportation Equity in Morrow County

Student Project Receives State Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 15, 2024
CONTACT: Grace Donovan, gdonovan@revcenter.org, (248) 409-8983

A project involving university students is being recognized by the state for their efforts in reaching out to community members.

The Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development is awarding the Most Outstanding Project – Small Jurisdiction: Achievement in Community Engagement Award to Morrow County and its partners who researched and developed the report, Rural Transportation Equity in Morrow County.

“The project's goal was to better understand the challenges of community members who live and work in Morrow County,” said Dr. Daniel Paul Costie, Assistant Professor of Public Administration at Eastern Oregon University and lead author of the report. “The research team consisted of Morrow County, Euvalcree, REV, and EOU. Under my supervision (and with feedback and guidance from Morrow County and Euvalcree) two outstanding students, Claire Bever and Corrian Kellogg, created a survey which was then distributed by the research partners. We then analyzed the data for key themes, then drafted the report based on the findings.”

“It was critical for the engagement role of this project to be rooted in the Eastern Oregon landscape,” said Madeline Phillips of DLCD who helped launch the Rural Transportation Equity Program. “Not only was this project an opportunity to build capacity within EOU to support planning efforts of local jurisdictions, but that the folks doing the work have familiarity and build trust with the practitioners and community members who participated. Educators and students from Eastern Oregon University, Euvalcree, and the REV Center took this notion to heart, and I believe the results of the work will continue to produce dividends as REV builds these methods into projects to serve other communities in the region.”

The DLCD committee granting the award cited the following aspects which impressed it: 

  • Using demographics to understand the audience and coordination with existing community based organizations to reach them,

  • Meeting community members where they were,

  • Coordination with Eastern Oregon University for survey development and analysis, and

  • Consideration of and future aspiration to update Morrow County’s Goal 1 plan to accommodate less traditional modalities in community engagement.

Partners in the project included Morrow County Planning Department, Eastern Oregon University, the Rural Engagement & Vitality Center, and Euvalcree, a culturally specific organization. The report can be found at www.revcenter.org/reports.

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