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On Wednesday, April 24, the Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship (PACES) held an Outreach Awards Luncheon where Assistant Professor Jota Samper, Phd, and Teaching Assistant Professor Valeria Henao were able to present on their on-going work in Medellín, Colombia.  

Over the past seven years, the Colombian Displaced Communities: Planning and Urban Design Seminar has supported the process of providing basic needs to communities displaced by violence while simultaneously learning from their innovative approaches. Through cross-cultural collaborations between over 80 students from CU, an equal number of local university students and thousands of community members, the work has achieved many milestones. This includes constructing hundreds of pathways and stairways in the steep hills of the informal settlements of Manatiales de Paz, Carpinelo, and Honda, establishing two community kitchens, building, renovating, or establishing three community centers, improving water collection and provision and facilitating hundreds of sewer connections.  

In his speech, Samper noted that through this project, faculty and students do not seek to rescue or impose solutions upon anyone. Rather, the focus of the work is co-production with the community: sharing challenges, collaboratively designing solutions and making those designs a reality.