Can verse mediate between the educational institution and the wider community of which it is a part? Utilising a case study of a specific taught module, this essay considers whether the performance of poetry as an experiential learning activity has a role to play in the emerging concept of the university as an anchor institution, a term that…

Anchor movements rest on the premise that people- and place-based initiatives can be mutually reinforcing. The community development movement, however, has been haunted for years by the people-place dilemma -- the idea that efforts to help people harm efforts to uplift places and vice versa. Most of the literature on the anchor strategy has…

Evaluated the impact of a civil remedy program, Beat Health (Oakland, California), on drug and disorder problems under experimental field trial conditions. Findings show some improvement in the experimental residential areas, but possible displacement of drug problems in and around the commercial experimental and control sites. (SLD)

More than 6,021 groups have been identified that work to bring peace to urban streets in constructive ways. Approaches that can help bring these groups together as exemplified by the Youth Peace Movement are discussed. The transcommunal approach of the Youth Peace Movement brings together many allies at the grass roots level. (SLD)

The potential of the community development corporation (CDC) as a vital component of inner-city development politics is explored and its limitations are outlined. In some neighborhoods, nonprofit CDCs have helped build an alternative social production process and have advanced a new and progressive development regime. (SLD)

Social capital is the glue that holds a community together. It is the network of relationships among persons that can be used to get things done. Social capital is a necessary, but not sufficient, ingredient of community building. A community must mobilize its social capital and the mechanisms of its infrastructure to face and resolve collective…

Recent urban redevelopment efforts in Chicago (Illinois) have often come at the expense of current low-income residents as upscale living replaces businesses and homes and raises rents. Local Community Development Organizations (CDOs) offer an alternative path to economic development by being a foundation for neighborhood efforts that meet the…

This symposium investigates the condition of urban Latinos and Blacks two decades after reports by the Kerner, Eisenhower, and Katzenbach commissions recommended sweeping reforms in urban policy. Twenty-nine researchers, politicians, and policymakers analyze the condition of the urban poor and the role of minorities in forming policies. The…

This collection was gathered from a seminar entitled "Education and Leisure in North European Urban Spaces," which was the result of cooperation between the Sports, Leisure, and Tourism Work Group of the International Union of Architects and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Papers were given…

If schools became true communities of learners they could spread community throughout alienated urban areas. Some major themes defining cooperative community are explored. Stages that schools should go through in building community are detailed. Providing outreach to other potential communities is a later step in the process. (SLD)

Community building is an approach to urban poverty that rejects a programmatic approach in favor of efforts that catalyze personal relationships and social networks to improve community life. Community building analyzes urban poverty as a web of interwoven problems that can lock families out of opportunity permanently. Community building…

Examines the effect of community development projects on Detroit (Michigan) over the past decade. Concludes that community development has failed to increase the number of jobs available and has contributed to neighborhood deterioration. (FMW)

Papers in this collection result from an 18-month exploration of ways to reform services for children and families in big cities, a so-called "rolling seminar" searching for ways to provide supportive and nourishing communities for city children. Contributions to this collection include: (1) "Themes and Viewpoints" (Editors);…

This issue of "Civic Partners" is a call to action on behalf of American's cities. The issue opens with John W. Gardner's discussion of the "responsibles" whose vision and energy sustain communities. He stresses that all of us are "responsibles." Among the many tasks that face those responsible for urban improvement is the teaching of conflict…

This paper describes how four institutions of higher education, local businesses, and community leaders cooperated to work for change in University Heights (Newark, New Jersey). Initial sections describe the community and the economic and social changes it has seen in recent decades. These sections also review how the four institutions established…