Building Higher Education: Community Development Corporation Partnerships

This handbook documents Community Outreach Partnership Center and Joint Community Development initiatives to build partnerships with community development corporations to more effectively plan and carry out projects to improve the neighborhoods they share. It draws primarily on the experience of the COPCs, JCDs, and other higher education and community initiatives. The handbook:

- Describes the ways in which colleges and universities have partnered or collaborated with CDCs to do community development, providing numerous examples.

- Suggests other areas and methods of collaborating for more effective community development.

- Draws lessons from this experience about building strong partnerships and collaborating on successful development projects.

- Serves as a guide for higher education institutions considering entering or expanding collaborative relations with CDCs.

Of these many important collaborations, this handbook focuses on higher education partnerships with CDCs designed to strengthen the human, organizational, economic, and physical capacity of the neighborhood and its residents. It highlights partnerships that strengthen the capacity of individuals to achieve economic self-sufficiency by securing better employment; of organizations to grow and provide better services and more opportunities for community building; of the neighborhood to provide more affordable housing; and of the physical infrastructure to offer more recreation, better transportation, and more opportunities for community building.