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One of the most important developments at IURD has been the growth and development of our partnership work in the Bay Area.  IURD's community partnerships take place through our Community Partnerships Office under the leadership of Institute director David Dowall.  This work has allowed us to engage faculty, administrative staff, and students from well beyond our core in city planning and has provided much that is highly valued in the community.

IURD's approach to this partnership begins with its central role as a hub of engaged urban research.  IURD staff serve as a conduit to the resources of the campus:   faculty, graduate students in professional programs, undergraduate student volunteers, and other campus outreach units.

Our current community-university partnerships focus across the city and the East Bay. They are grounded in the model developed through the University/Oakland Metropolitan Forum.  Over the past 15 years, IURD has convened leadership conferences, conducted analyses and evaluations, and provided other technical assistance on urban policy issues including neighborhood and economic development, environmental protection, community empowerment, and social change.  As a whole, the Institute has developed close relationships with city, community, and other nonprofit institutions working in Oakland and West Oakland in particular.  IURD has raised more than $5.9 million in the last seven years for collaborative projects with community based organizations and public agencies in the city of Oakland.  Faculty and students involved in these projects have been drawn from the College of Environmental Design, the College of Natural Resources, Civil Engineering, the School of Education, the School of Public Health and the School of Public Policy.

IURD’s goal for our work with community groups is that research questions and answers are actively used to influence community members’ viewpoints, priorities and decision-making in the pursuit of increased services and resources. In order to assure the work is influential we intensively engage community members in the design and implementation of research questions.  We strive to communicate the results throughout the process, rather than simply at the ‘end,’ to deliver it as clearly and powerfully as possible, and help develop the strategies for its use.  Simultaneously, communities can inform and sometimes change the way university and other sources of research are approached in an effort to move towards more alignment between community needs and those who draft policies.

Take a look at some of the partnerships now under way or in the works.