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Foreword
- State University of New York Press
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Foreword Our colleges and universities have always been the hope for our nation’s future. As repositories and conservators of knowledge, they pass on the accumulated understanding and wisdom of one generation to the next. As centers of thought and research, they continually build on the work of previous generations , constantly expanding our horizons of understanding. Our institutions of higher learning introduce young people to the wider world beyond the familiar confines of home and family—to new ideas, new ways of looking at things, and, most importantly, to other people from widely varying backgrounds—to the rich diversity of human experience. They instill values critical to the health of a democratic society, including lifelong respect for learning and openness to new ideas, concern for others beyond our immediate circle of family and friends, personal civic responsibility, a drive to make tomorrow better than today, and tolerance. Colleges and universities are an invaluable resource for urban policy and planning, doing fundamental research, providing seminal analysis of urban problems, developing strategies for their solution, and supporting programs to train urban planners and scholars. Academic research has already made vital contributions to the understanding of urban issues and, through that understanding , to the well-being of American cities. But as important as they are, research and understanding are not enough. Articles, books, and conferences are not enough. Political capital is not of much use unless it is spent on leadership. By the same token, intellectual capital’s value is diminished if it is not invested in action. In that regard, the university-community partnership has been pioneered in Chicago by the University of Illinois (UIC), DePaul, and Loyola as a model for the nation—a vivid demonstration of what can be accomplished when major institutions combine resources with those of government, business, and community groups. xiii The UIC Neighborhoods Initiative is helping to create: (1) an affordable housing consortium; (2) commercial and industrial area design; (3) entrepreneurial programs for youth; (4) adult literacy and community health programs; and (5) linkage of neighborhood groups on the Internet through UIC’s academic data network. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has supported the UIC effort with a variety of grants, including HUD Academy (a joint project with DePaul) to train HUD staff ($160,000), the Community Outreach Partnership Program ($580,000), and the Joint Community Partnership Center ($2.4 million). Additionally, the University of Louisville (U of L) has worked in partnership with businesses, government, public schools, and community-based groups to help inner-city residents lift themselves out of poverty. The U of L ’s HANDS (Housing and Neighborhood Development Strategies) program provided support for the conversion of 150 units of former public housing development— La Salle Place—to private homes for sale to low-income buyers. More recently, the university’s Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods (SUN) program has worked closely with the Telesis Corporation (a Washington, D.C., developer), local and HUD officials, Mayor Jerry Abramson, and community organizations to save the 600-unit HUD Section 8 Village West Apartments from foreclosure and eventual demolition. They have also provided technical support to several nonprofits for building affordable homes and even converting an abandoned school into an assisted housing development. As another example, the University of Pennsylvania Center for Community Partnerships was started in 1992, in part to create new and effective partnerships between the university and the community and to strengthen a national network of institutions of higher education committed to engagement with their local communities. While I was at HUD, we created the Office of University Partnerships to help colleges fulfill their urban mission. Our goals were to recognize, reward, and build upon successful examples of universities’ activities in local revitalization projects, create the next urban generation and encourage them to focus their work on housing and community development policy and applied research , and form partnerships with other federal agencies to support innovative university teaching, research, and service partnerships. Now, more than ever, universities are essential in helping HUD achieve its mission of creating communities of opportunity. Of particular note was our work with local communities and their universities and colleges to create a “campus of learners” initiative to build partnerships between public housing developments and nearby schools. This initiative converted some developments into “learning campuses” similar to dormitories at universities. Family members study at home to learn skills, using computers hooked up to self-paced education and training courses devised by the schools. xiv Foreword [44.192.53.34...