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 In profile this month is the Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL) at Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois. CURL seeks to promote equality and improve peoples lives in communities throughout the Chicago metropolitan region, a mission it pursues by building and supporting collaborative research and education efforts. These partnerships connect Loyola faculty and students with community and nonprofit organizations, civic groups and government agencies. Such collaborative initiatives leverage the assets and knowledge present in communities and neighborhoods with the specialized skills and resources of university staff, faculty and students.
With the establishment of CURL, Loyola University greatly increased its commitment to university/community partnerships in rebuilding the city's neighborhoods. This relationship is further reinforced through its staff members, who possess both academic expertise and cultural competency to work with the communities in which they intervene.
Partnerships. CURL advances its mission by partnering on projects with the community, university departments and philanthropic organizations. CURLs Community Partners range from small community based organizations to larger organizations serving communities or citywide constituencies. CURL also works with city and state governmental agencies. In addition, faculty from departments, professional schools and academic units from across the university have been involved in a variety of ways with collaborative research at CURL. Typically, individual faculty members have served on team-based projects. In other instances, faculty members with strong ties to community organizations and institutions have initiated community-based research, receiving support as CURL Faculty Fellows. Philanthropic partners also are essential to the success of CURL and its mission. Over the past six years, generous financial support for CURL's model of collaborative research has resulted in grants from foundations, corporations, and government agencies, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, the Joyce Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, and others.
Collaborative research projects. CURL projects are developed with community-based organizations across metropolitan Chicago. The projects relate to a wide range of issues, including homelessness, welfare reform, hunger and nutrition, community health, safety, childcare, affordable housing, job training and placement, and domestic violence. Past research projects and initiatives completed since 1996 by the Center for Urban Research and Learning have focused on such topics as childcare, public safety, education, hunger and homelessness, health, housing, empowerment evaluation, and youth.
CURL is directed Philip Nyden, PhD, a former chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Loyola University who has done extensive research and writing on urban policy issues, racial and ethnic diversity, and university/community collaboration. For more information on the Center for Urban Research and Learning, visit their website at www.luc.edu/curl.
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