HUD grant to foster university-community partnerships

IUPUI will receive part of $7.3 million in federal grants aimed at fostering university-community partnerships. The campus is one of 25 colleges and universities across the nation that will share the award from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), officials announced last week. IUPUI's three-year grant will total $395,088.

The grant is part of a HUD effort to promote the revitalization of distressed, low-income neighborhoods through a partnership with local colleges and universities. IUPUI has teamed with the Westside Cooperative Organization (WESCO), which represents three neighborhoods near campus, to form a Community Outreach Partnership Center.

"Community members should work together, exchanging ideas and resources to solve their problems and plan for the future," said IUPUI Chancellor Gerald L. Bepko. "We are pleased to have this opportunity to expand IUPUI's long-standing commitment to assist the neighborhoods in our vicinity and help anchor community revitalization efforts."

IUPUI has worked with WESCO and the neighborhoods it represents since early this year to identify three areas of need and to match them with expertise and resources available on campus:

• The IUPUI Institute of Action Research for Community Health will assist WESCO in its organizational development;

• The Center for Urban Policy and the Environment and the Indianapolis Regional Small Business Development Center, both based at IUPUI, will lend their expertise to the economic development of Indianapolis' Near Westside; and

• The IUPUI Office of Service Learning will assist in education policy and programming at neighborhood schools.

"This is something that will affect the way the whole city does business," said Olgen Williams, executive director of Christamore House. "We feel this is a great city and a great university, and we look forward to many opportunities to sit at the table as mutual partners."

Return to Table of Contents