Goals of Center for Urban Studies

1.     Become a nationally / internationally recognized Center of Excellence focused on applied research and community development in distressed inner-city neighborhoods. 

2.     Influence the development of scholarship on issues relating to distressed inner city urban communities nationally and internationally. 

3.     Expand the frontiers of knowledge by building a Social Function Model of Neighborhood Development in the Buffalo-Niagara metropolitan region, which can be replicated across the nation.  

4.     Structure a vehicle for more efficiently and effectively connecting university resources (faculty, students, and staff) to the regeneration of distressed inner-city neighborhoods across the Buffalo-Niagara metropolitan region. 

5.     Influence public policies on neighborhood development in inner-city neighborhoods in the Buffalo-Niagara metropolitan region. 

6.     Assist in the development of a regional higher education network on service learning and neighborhood development that focuses on the redevelopment of distressed inner-city neighborhoods in the Buffalo-Niagara metropolitan region. 

7.     Create a focus on inner city development that bolsters the activities of the UB Center for Leadership and Community Engagement, the Civic Engagement Academy, and Discovery Seminars by creating opportunities for learning about inner-city neighborhood development and for engaging in strategically focused service learning activities in distressed inner-city communities.