Community Outreach Inventory Main Page

Colleges and universities around the nation are increasing their efforts to reach out to the communities around them. With support from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2001-2002, the Lewis Mumford Center conducted a study of these outreach programs. One part of the study had a national scope: an inventory of all projects supported through HUD’s Community Outreach and Partnership Center (COPC) program. The second part was a more intensive review of activities by educational institutions in the Hudson Mohawk region of New York State.

This web page provides information from both parts of our study.

COPC programs around the nation. Since 1994, HUD has been issuing Community Outreach and Partnership Center (COPC) grants to two-year community colleges, four-year colleges, and universities. We reviewed grant recipients from 1997 to 2000, a total of 89 colleges. Our inventory of their programs may be useful to others as they consider new programs targeted to disadvantaged neighborhoods and communities. The inventory gives concise information about the structure and content of each program.

Click here to see a brief overview of COPC programs around the nation.

Click here to view the National Community Outreach Inventory.

Community outreach in the Hudson-Mohawk region. This part of upstate New York is unusually rich in higher education institutions. Their programs offer many opportunities to enhance economic growth and community development. Working together with Fulton-Montgomery Community College and with the cooperation of the Presidents of other colleges and universities, the Mumford Center identified 199 specific outreach activities in the region. Our information is based on interviews with people involved in the programs or written materials provided by the colleges; the program descriptions have been reviewed for accuracy and completeness by contact persons at each institution.

Surely we have missed many programs. Of those we identified, almost half fall into the categories of adult education (57) and programs for elementary and high school faculty and students (40). Fewer are in the categories of community relations (21), local internships (19), high-tech research and business applications (15) and volunteer service (13). The least represented categories of activities in the region were neighborhood revitalization (9), business assistance (9), cultural enrichment (9) and web development (7).

A partial inventory of these programs is provided here, including information about whom to contact in order to take advantage of them:

Click here to see a brief overview of programs in the region.

Click here to find links to participating institutions' home pages.

Click here to view the complete Hudson-Mohawk program inventory.

IN IT TOGETHER: How higher education institutions work as partners in community and economic development. The Mumford Center and Fulton-Montgomery Community College jointly hosted a conference on December 4, 2001, at the University at Albany. The purpose of the conference was to share information with the participating colleges and universities, local politicians, planning agencies and community representatives.

Click here to view the conference agenda.

Click here to view session summaries.