There is broad recognition that anchor institutions--universities, hospitals, and other locally embedded organizations--can leverage their economic and human resources to revitalize and empower distressed neighborhoods. In Milwaukee, five anchor institutions, including Marquette University, collaborated with residents, city officials, and other…

In this article, a layered conceptual framework for "place-based school reform" is presented as a way to link the concept of school reform and neighborhood development. Because many universities have been involved in community-school-university partnerships, the university community engagement literature will be connected to this…

Cork, the Republic of Ireland's second most populous city, is one of 12 UNESCO Learning Cities globally. Becoming a learning city requires a sophisticated audit of education, learning and other socio-economic indicators. It also demands that cities become proactively engaged in delivering to the objectives set by the "Beijing Declaration on…

Given the mounting call for academic achievement gains in America's public schools--particularly urban schools labeled "failing"--the need for community engagement to tackle a host of underlying social challenges warrants the resources of the nation's colleges and universities (Harkavy & Hartley, 2009). Because colleges and…

Poverty has caused enormous pressures and urgent needs in the city of Fresno. In an effort to incorporate a deep awareness of social, cultural, and environmental needs of the Fresno area in engineering and design education, a pilot design-build program entitled Eco-village at California State University, Fresno, has been established. Students from…

In this article we take a closer look at a developing university-community engagement project being undertaken between California State University, Fresno, and the City of Fresno. A history of the project is provided, along with a review of the relevant literature and a summary of what pieces of the puzzle we feel should be in place for a…

In 1992, Congress enacted the HOPE VI program to overhaul the nation's public housing policy. The reform legislation was prompted by a report commissioned by Congress that deemed two-thirds of all public housing "severely distressed." Since the landmark public housing policy was enacted in 1992, the Department of Housing and Urban Development…

At first glance, the seemingly impenetrable fence surrounding the urban campus of Rhodes College seems to represent the academic and social isolation of the liberal arts college. Inside the fence are manicured lawns, beautiful buildings of stone and stained glass and a student body comprised mostly of affluent White young men and women. Outside…

The powerful, reciprocal connection between school and housing segregation has long been recognized. The housing-school link was a key element in both the 1968 Kerner Commission Report and in the legislative history of the Fair Housing Act. The relation of school and housing segregation was also explored in a series of school desegregation cases…