HRMEI PROJECT FOCUS AREAS
A partial list of research areas that are addressed in the overall mission and goals of the Heritage Resources Management and Education Institute include:
• Archeological & historic resource management (protection, conservation, preservation, curation, Section 106 [federal law] compliance, & public education/interpretation).
• Ethnic community consultation and identification and management of Traditional Cultural Places, including Native American Sacred Lands.
• Modeling prehistoric and historic cultural-natural landscapes for public lands management, interpretation, and public education and outreach.
• Conducting social and economic impact studies of public lands and their associated urban and rural communities.
• Development and application of Geographic Information Systems technologies to the study and manage of heritage (cultural and natural) resources on public lands.
• Developing interdisciplinary, pre-collegiate school curricula and teacher education training programs based on UNC contributions to an expanding knowledge base of heritage (cultural and natural) resources on public lands.
• One important, targeted curriculum and teacher education area will be Geography Education and Native American Cultures and Prehistory/History. Project grants in these areas will build on the current National Geographic Society-funded Colorado Alliance for Geography Educators and UNC’s on-going archaeology and Native American cultural programs in Rocky Mountain National Park and Bureau of Land Management lands in North Park Valley.
• Develop projects designed to advance historical, archeological, and photographic documentation and archival database technologies associated with cultural and natural resources on public lands. The current UNC Libraries archival and historic photograph digitization project creates a strong base for such projects.
• Pursue collaborative university-government programs for enhancement of resource management education, service, and fundamental research, particularly through the current CESU consortium (see below).
• Develop collaborative faculty-student (graduate & undergraduate) research, contracted service, and education projects that can directly facilitate and train UNC students for careers in public lands resource management.
• Conduct contracted or grant-funded collaborative ventures with Colorado municipalities in legally required or community-generated projects related to cultural resources within city or town boundaries, such as archaeological sites, human burials of prehistoric or historic origin, historic structures, and museums.
The mission and goals of the Community Development and Outreach Institute address community development and outreach issues and problems in the following areas and ways, to:
• Promote and assist community organizations in strategic planning, survey research, and consultations on economic growth, inter- and intra- sociological-cultural (ethnic and socio-economic) dynamics associated with community growth and change, and environmental impacts of population growth and development.
• Assist county and municipal agencies and departments in planning, developing, and implementing effective policies to deal with real or emerging problems related to population growth and development in such areas as community relations, security (law enforcement, courts, probation…), and essential services (water, roads, emergency services).
• Provide basic and in-service training wherever needed or requested for county and/or community based government departments in the above noted areas.
• Enhance and support, with university expertise and relevant research facilities and technologies, existing community-based development initiatives and programs by, in part, amplifying resources for those programs with externally-grant funded, collaborative university-community projects.
• Train and educate UNC students in areas of knowledge and expertise that lead to careers associated with community development, planning and outreach, providing a potential pool of well-educated, experienced post-graduate employees to area and regional county and community governments.
• Develop projects that, in partnership with non-profit organizations, support pre-existing and establish new community enhancement programs with those organizations, and help amplifying the impact of their services and contributions to Front Range and eastern plains communities.
• Develop and provide services, consultation, and collaborative community-UNC research and contract projects related to regional and community growth and their impact on K-12 school systems, particularly in areas of anticipating and planning for the overall (and specific) demands and effects of such growth.