CUPR conducts research on the causes and consequences of urban poverty and evaluates associated public policies and programs. Examples of this work are CUPR's multiyear evaluation of New Jersey’s Transitional Housing Demonstration Program, assessing the impacts of providing housing and supportive services to the homeless, and its three-year evaluation of the innovative Neighborhood Revitalization Program in Minneapolis.

Community development outreach and evaluation are key areas of CUPR research. Center staff have completed several community development studies, including a major three-year, nineteen-city evaluation of The Ford Foundation's community development partnership program aimed at expanding the community development capacity of locally based nonprofit groups. CUPR's Project Community provides direct services, technical assistance, and training to community-based organizations and nonprofit groups engaged in neighborhood revitalization. Project Community's Strategic Revitalization Plan for Newark's Central Ward received the 1997 Outstanding Comprehensive Planning Award from the New Jersey chapter of the American Planning Association. The project also won a national award from AICP, the American Institute of Certified Planners. In 1998, CUPR was one of eighteen university-based applicants to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for a Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC). The COPC, partners with six community-based organizations in the revitalization of Newark's Central Ward, one of the poorest and most disempowered communities in the nation.

Visit the Project Community Website