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RRR logo Cityscape Examines University-Community Partnerships

Since 1994, when HUD established the Office of University Partnerships (OUP) within the Office of Policy Development and Research, the Department has funded programs that move college faculty, staff, and students out of their ivory towers and into distressed neighborhoods in cities and towns nationwide. The latest issue of Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research examines how OUP's Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPCs) are connecting communities and institutions of higher education (IHEs).

In the past 6 years, COPCs have provided seed money for community-building efforts to 119 colleges and universities in 37 States. Through dedication and hard work, IHEs and their community partners are breaking down the barriers of distrust that historically have separated them, transforming a divide into an atmosphere of mutual respect and cooperation.

COPCs help 2- and 4-year colleges and universities develop and sustain effective community partnerships through grants of up to $400,000 over a 3-year period. COPC-initiated partnerships involve all types of IHEs—from community colleges and technical institutions to private universities—as well as neighborhood residents, community-based organizations, local government leaders, private developers, and other parties that have a stake in a neighborhood's future. Although individual activities differ from one COPC to another, the overall aim of the COPC program is the same: increasing citizen capacity to improve the physical, environmental, social, and economic conditions of urban neighborhoods.

Because they can bring myriad resources to local community-building efforts, colleges and universities are in a unique position to help their neighborhoods change for the better.

The articles in this issue of Cityscape provide varied examples of the activities, outcomes, and analyses produced by the COPC grantees. The articles also provide readers with a valuable perspective on the range, scope, contributions, and enormous potential of community-IHE partnerships as well as the many challenges that colleges, universities, and their community partners face.

According to guest editor David N. Cox of the University of Memphis, despite the wide variety of activities in which they are involved, COPCs have some commonalties. For example, they:

  • View their communities holistically. Under this approach, COPCs address community problems through coordinated, rather than piecemeal, action.

  • Focus on bringing about permanent change in both the IHE and the community. COPC grantees are required to raise matching funds to help ensure successful activities. In addition, COPCs are encouraged to integrate community outreach into the university's teaching, research, and service.

  • Work with communities instead of on them. A COPC's goals and priorities reflect those of neighborhood residents—not the university's perceptions of what would be best for the neighborhood.

The first four articles focus on major issue areas in which COPCs are bringing neighborhood change: housing, education, community planning, and support for families and youth. Wim Wiewel, Frank Gaffikin, and Michael Morrissey describe university-community partnerships designed to address the lack of affordable housing in local communities. Using the COPC at the University of Illinois at Chicago as an example, the contributors outline the varied ways in which COPCs can and do play an active role in the housing field. Wiewel, Gaffikin, and Morrissey examine the nature of partnerships, outlining their strengths and weaknesses and what makes them work. The authors predict that partnerships may become part of a new form of governance that reshapes old-style, distant bureaucracies.

Two articles in the issue describe university efforts to engage young people in community-building activities. Authors Marc Smith and Thomas M. Vetica write about efforts at the University of Florida in Gainesville to use youth programs and the arts to organize neighborhood associations and build relationships with local community development corporations. Robert H. Wilson and Miguel Guajardo present an overview of efforts by the Urban Issues Program at the University of Texas at Austin to work with young people in El Cenizo, a colonia outside Laredo. Youth activities were part of a larger initiative to improve housing, infrastructure, and government performance in El Cenizo. Graduate students worked with El Cenizo teenagers to build the capacity of the teens to participate in local affairs.

The final two articles of this issue try to help COPCs answer the question: How do we measure a COPC's success? Stanley Hyland presents a methodology for evaluating whether outreach activities have contributed to quality-of-life changes in inner-city neighborhoods. Victor Rubin's article provides an overview and classification of the primary methods currently used to evaluate and assess university-community partnerships.

The articles in this issue of Cityscape highlight the accomplishments of the university-community partnerships and describe the potential these partnerships have to revitalize some of the Nation's most troubled inner-city neighborhoods.

Order Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research, Volume 5, Number 1, from HUD USER for $5. Use the order form. Cityscape can be downloaded from the HUD USER website at www.huduser.gov.

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