Director Travis Kraus says the university's community engagement program began 12 years ago, so faculty and students could leave the classroom and do "real world projects."
"We will be working with the Clinton community on a housing needs assessment, and the policy and progamming that follows the information that you learn through the assessment piece."
The 15 to 20 projects in Clinton will include public art, community marketing, local history, help for the homeless, and downtown re-vitalization.
"Civil and environmental engineering students will work on things such as rehabilitating under-utilized buildings, trail development is one of the projects that we're going to be doing with Clinton this year through engineering."
Kraus says the Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities works with one or two communities each year. (https://iisc.uiowa.edu/)
Friday afternoon's kickoff includes a ribbon cutting for a just completed mural in downtown Clinton (224 4th Ave. South).
