The Mission Statement

The Center for Urban Studies (CENTER) was founded in 1987 with the goal of transforming distressed inner city neighborhoods into vibrant, cosmopolitan communities based on participatory democracy, collaboration, reciprocity, and social justice.  This approach is based on the belief that social development must drive the physical, economic, and political development of distressed inner city neighborhoods. 

Toward this end, the CENTER works with residents and stakeholders in inner city communities to construct a social function model of neighborhood development capable of realizing in practice the radical reconstruction of inner city neighborhoods and their metropolitan regions. The Buffalo-Niagara metropolitan region serves as the CENTER’s laboratory where we conduct theoretical and applied research to transform distressed inner city communities and the urban metropolis. 

The concept of "neighborhood-place" stands at the center of this mission.  Diabetes, obesity, teen pregnancy, persistent poverty, food insecurity, underperforming schools, crime, violence, juvenile delinquency, poor housing, and unkempt vacant lots are interconnected problems that must be solved within a neighborhood context.    Because of the necessity of understanding these problems in a relational manner, embedded in a neighborhood context, the CENTER pursues an interdisciplinary approach that seeks to bring to bear the broad range of human knowledge required to regenerate distressed communities. 

To realize its mission, the CENTER carries out work in four interrelated areas:  

• It engages in neighborhood planning and community development in select communities and provides technical support and assistance to neighborhoods, organizations and groups throughout the Buffalo-Niagara metropolitan region.   
• It engages in theoretical and action research to gain insight into the "wicked" socioeconomic and health problems that thwart the development of inner city communities. 
• Through the Community Development and Urban Management Specialization in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, the CENTER trains community planners and urban managers who are concerned about the transformation of distressed urban neighborhood, racial, social, and economic justice, and the re-creation and re-development of urban regions. The specialization prepares students to operate effectively in distressed communities and urban settings where resources are scarce and where localities may be divided along race, class, gender and ideological lines.  Students work on “real world” problems in these inner city neighborhoods and this deepens their knowledge, sharpens their professional planning skills, and emphasizes the importance of participatory democracy and civic engagement.  
• Through the urban internship program, the CENTER uses a service learning problem-based approach to pedagogy that integrates classroom instruction with “real world” problem solving.  In this approach, graduate and undergraduates work with community-based institutions and organizations to solve neighborhood problems. This provides students with a powerful and unique learning experience.  By engaging in problem solving in a real world setting and having students reflect on their experiences, classroom knowledge and professional skills are greatly enhanced. 

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