National EPICS Teams
The existence of EPICS programs at several sites has opened the possibility of addressing community and educational needs that extend beyond those of a university and its local community. Several of the agencies that EPICS teams are working with are national in scope, such as Habitat for Humanity.
The possibility of EPICS project teams working with agencies in different cities and addressing national-scale problems led to a discussion with the staff of Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) about becoming the first National EPICS Project Partner. In February 2002, a Memorandum of Understanding between EPICS and HFHI was signed to begin a national partnership. Four EPICS programs were selected to pilot the multi-university model for this new partnership: Purdue University, Notre Dame University, Butler University, and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Teams from these programs are working with the National Habitat for Humanity staff to produce a set of construction tutorials for national distribution to Habitat volunteers and to produce a data collection infrastructure to allow Habitat to assess its impact on families on a national level.
These projects have the national staff of Habitat for Humanity as the project partner, and they offer the opportunity for students at multiple sites to collaborate on a common project. Each site also works with the local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity to insure the products being developed meet their needs and will be used by such affiliates. The work of these teams is presented to the staff of Habitat for Humanity International annually.
For more information on the Habitat for Humanity EPICS teams, please refer to http://epics.ecn.purdue.edu/hfh/ and Wisconsin EPICS Program
