Instead of seeing the environmental, social and economic struggles in rural West Virginia as simply insurmountable, a forward-thinking initiative at West Virginia University is changing the game — looking instead at what communities can do and using those strengths to pave the way toward a more promising future.
The Community Engagement Lab in the WVU Davis College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and WVU Extension brings the expertise of faculty and the energy of students to solve critical problems of design. Design partnerships with the Community Engagement Lab may focus on regions, corridors, communities, sites and buildings. Through the Community Engagement Lab, faculty engage classes of students in performing a variety of participatory methods and service-learning approaches to design and planning.
“Our goal is to connect the University’s resources directly with the communities that need them most,” said Peter Butler, landscape architecture professor and extension specialist in the WVU Davis College. “We’re not just offering solutions; we’re building partnerships that empower local leaders to drive their own progress.”
The Fulcrum Project, a collaborative and asset-based framework for community development at West Virginia University, will continue improving student learning experiences outside the classroom while serving communities across the state.
Tangible impacts across the Mountain State
The Community Engagement Lab takes a refreshing approach — focusing on what a community already has going for it, asset-based community development. By building on local connections and understanding what people truly need, teams are created with students, experienced faculty and enthusiastic community members. This collaborative spirit allows for teams to directly address the issues that matter most.
Bringing the concept to life, the outdoor stage near the Pocahontas County Opera House in Marlinton brings people to town for musical entertainment.
Recently, the Community Engagement Lab has focused on downtown revitalization, beautification and trail development in Kingwood; assisted the community of Richwood by envisioning new uses for a former grade school and hardware store; designed tourist accommodations in Kimball to support the Hatfield-McCoy Trail System; supported local agriculture, and the development and enhancement of local farmers’ markets, with major impacts to local economies and increased access to fresh food; created vibrant community gathering spaces like Discovery Junction in Marlinton and Stonecoal Junction in Wyoming County; developed therapeutic landscape designs in Martinsburg, designed a miners’ memorial in Matewan and a mixed-use development in Smithers; and even improved access to natural resources in Cowen that included designs for boat docks on the B&O Railroad reservoir.
These examples of tangible outcomes demonstrate a diverse range of projects — all driven by the needs and assets identified within the partner communities through their activities with the West Virginia Community Development Hub. The Fulcrum Project, a recent Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation-funded project, impacted more than 30 communities and involved 95 students.
The project was a multiyear transformative and collaborative success story. The work combines the benefits of student-learning experiences outside the classroom with serving communities across the state.
Leveling the playing field
Teams work with marginal landscapes, spaces often overlooked or considered problematic and focus on environmental design in an effort to enhance community health, equity, sustainability and resilience. By prioritizing citizen control, delegating power and fostering genuine partnerships, the Community Engagement Lab ensures that local voices are at the forefront.
“We’re building on the need to work with disenfranchised and underserved populations,” said Udday Datta, a former landscape architecture graduate student who worked on the Fulcrum Project.
“ Through service-learning projects, we’re empowering communities to take ownership of their future. ”
— Udday Datta
Butler agreed and said it all comes down to reciprocity.
“A lot of times when the University goes and does a project with a stakeholder group, students get to create a product and that’s the goal,” Butler said. “With the Community Engagement Lab, and the relationship building that is at the core of it, they’re getting so much more. It is a very authentic learning experience and one that they really need to have. Participating has proven to be so meaningful for many of these students who tend to see themselves in these projects, and that participation builds stewardship that we hope continues well after their time at WVU.”
The impact of the engagement extends beyond visualizing physical transformations for participating communities, too. Through pre- and post-engagement surveys and interviews, researchers are meticulously tracking student-learning outcomes and community capital development, asking crucial questions like: Are local leaders empowered? How are communities stewarding projects toward implementation?
The findings are overwhelmingly positive, demonstrating significant growth in both student learning and community capacity. Seed grants further fuel the momentum, enabling communities to access even more professional services and move closer to implementation.
“Seeing projects get funded and built is super meaningful,” Butler said. “These places, many of them, don’t have any money in their budgets to hire people for services like these. Our students come in, do their work and create meaningful and viable plans with and for these communities. Communities then take the plans and can use them to apply for grants and other funding mechanisms and actually see them come to fruition. A lot of the projects we’ve worked on ended up getting congressionally directed funding.”
Cooling off in the summer.
Transforming student lives
While transforming communities might be a big focus on these efforts, transforming student lives is another huge win for the program.
Being part of the Community Engagement Lab transformed my life,” Datta said. “I am currently working as a program coordinator for the Be Healthy initiative, a partnership between the Centers for Disease Control and WVU. We are working in eight different rural communities improving access to healthy food and physical activity. I got interested in this directly because of my work as a graduate research assistant on the Fulcrum Project, and being part of them prepared me perfectly for this role. I’m originally from Bangladesh, and I’ve been here for six years. This is my home. And I really love working in a capacity that allows me to give back to my community.”The Community Engagement Lab’s partnerships have expanded to contributing to the EPA’s Region III Technical Assistance to Brownfield Communities program, the USDA’s Rural Community Development Initiative and the CDC’s Be Wild, Be Wonderful, Be Healthy program. The Fulcrum Project and other work from the Community Engagement Lab are more than just design initiatives; they’re a catalyst for community transformation. They’re a testament to the power of collaboration, the importance of asset-based planning and the unwavering spirit of rural West Virginia.
By tipping the narrative, the Community Engagement Lab is proving that even in the face of adversity, positive change is possible. And in the heart of Appalachia, that change is blooming.
