Designing with Community in Mind

Imagine not being able to rely on your local water source. Or living in an area without a public park. What if each rainfall threatened your town’s primary industry and your own source of income? And what if your community didn’t have adequate resources available to rectify these issues?

These scenarios are reality for residents in three western United States communities.

That’s why the Community Engineering Corps (CECorps) and Stantec have stepped in to help. The CECorps is an alliance partner of Engineers Without Borders USA (EWB-USA), which Stantec has long supported, most recently through a $75,000 donation in 2017 and hours of hard work from our employee volunteers over the years.

While EWB-USA sends engineers around the globe to implement engineering projects for communities in need, the CECorps focuses on bringing technical professionals and students together to serve the same purpose within the United States.

A portion of Stantec’s 2017 donation to EWB-USA was allocated to support three CECorps projects. Those projects are now providing our North American employees an opportunity to share their skills with the residents of Salinas Valley, California; Holbrook, Arizona; and Taylor, Arizona.

“Smaller communities often don’t have the resources available to support large engineering staffs within their own government structures,” says Rich Allen, EWB-USA board member and former chief operating officer of Stantec. “By sharing a small amount of their time and knowledge, Stantec employees are able to make a big difference for these towns.”

In the Salinas Valley, our team is providing water supply and wastewater planning, grant application, and community outreach services to help replace groundwater wells and inadequate on-site wastewater disposal systems. In Holbrook, we have a team helping with design on a community park where children will be able to run and play. In Taylor, we’re assisting with design of a community-critical rodeo grounds and related drainage work.

 “The results of projects like these can be life-changing: for the volunteers and the recipients,” adds Rich.

Want to learn more?

Stantec has long supported the Community Engineering Corps (CECorps) and Engineers Without Borders USA (EWB-USA) through financial and in-kind donations. This work has benefitted communities within the United States and around the world, and it’s helped our employees grow personally and professionally too.