Research and Community Planning and Development Projects
Applied Research
The Effects of Perceived Funding Trends on Nonprofit Advocacy and Civic Engagement: A National Survey of Organizations Serving the African American and Latino Communities.
Robert Silverman (Principle Investigator) and Kelly Patterson (Co-Principal Investigator)--This project examines how directors of nonprofits serving African-American and Latino communities perceive trends in funding for their organizations. In addition, executive directors’ perceptions of legal restrictions on the political activities of nonprofits will be examined. The effects of executive directors’ perceptions on the scope of nonprofit advocacy and civic engagement will be measured. The project is funded by the Baldy Center Annual Research Grant 2008-2009, The Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy, University at Buffalo ($4,639).
This builds on a larger body of research which indicates that since the 1970s public sector funding for nonprofits has declined while levels of support from foundations and funding intermediaries has increased (Keyes et al. 1996; Liu and Stroh 1998; Light 2000; Salamon 2002; Werther and Berman 2001; Frisch and Servon 2006). It has been argued that in response to shifts in funding, nonprofits have reduced the role of advocacy and civic engagement activities in their organizations while expanding the role of other programmatic areas focusing on housing and social service delivery (Grobjerg 1993; Dreier 1996; Swanstrom 1999; Minkoff 2002; Bockmeyer 2003; Silverman forthcoming).
The effects of funding trends on nonprofit activities are of particular interest in relation to advocacy organizations that serve minority communities. There has been relatively little empirical research focusing on this aspect of these organizations by nonprofit scholars. This study will address this gap in the literature through a survey of executive directors of three nonprofits serving minority communities: the Urban League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). These three organizations are of particular interest because each is comprised of a national network of affiliates, and each pursues a mixture of advocacy, civic engagement, and other programmatic activities.
It is hypothesized that perceptions of funding constraints in the public and nonprofit sectors will correlate with individual nonprofits deemphasizing advocacy and civic engagement, and enhancing their focus on other programmatic activities. It is further hypothesized that a greater reliance on foundation and intermediary funding will increase this tendency. In addition, we hypothesize that some organizations will perceive legal restrictions on nonprofit political activities as impediments to pursuing advocacy and civic engagement. As a result, these organizations will place an even greater emphasis on other programmatic activities.
This project’s findings will generate recommendations for policy related to funding and regulation of nonprofits. These policy recommendations will have resonance among both public and nonprofit funding agencies. One dimension of these recommendations will focus on understanding how trends in funding affect the composition of programs and services offered by nonprofits. The other dimension of these recommendations will focus on understanding how legal constraints placed on the political activities of nonprofits affect the scope of advocacy and civic engagement that these organizations pursue.
Analysis of Impediments for Fair Housing Choice
Kelly Patterson (Principal Investigator) and Robert Silverman (Co-Principal Investigator)-- This study is being done to develop a report on impediments to fair housing for all suburban municipalities in Erie County, NY excluding the Town and Village of Hamburg. The study is required by HUD for all municipalities receiving CDBG funding. The study is funded by the Erie County Urban County Consortium.
Community Development
The East Side Neighborhood Transformation Partnership (ESNTP)
This award winning project seeks to realize in practice the social function model of neighborhood development. The ESNTP is a collaboration between the UB Center for Urban Studies and the Community Action Organization of Erie County. The project is currently funded though a Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Outreach Partnership Grant and the Community Action Organization of Erie County.
The goal is to turn the Fruit Belt and the Martin Luther King, Jr. neighborhoods into safe, clean, and healthy pedestrian accessible, thriving communities that are imbued with the values of participatory democracy, cosmopolitanism, reciprocity and social justice.
To realize this goal in practice, we pursue an outreach and action research strategy that involves residents and stakeholders in a collaborative, community driven process that integrates housing, health, economic, and educational development activities into a single, comprehensive initiative.
The project’s goal is to provide the Fruit Belt and Martin Luther King, Jr. neighborhoods with technical and capacity building support, while simultaneously assisting them in the development of a social and institutional framework that strengthens their social functioning and that sustains their development.
The initiative centers on the implementation of a three pronged strategy. The first step is the development of a catalytic institution called the Community Wellness and Neighborhood Development Center, which advocates for the community and functions as the administration “hub” of the Partnership. It will be responsible for coordinating activities, building partnerships within and outside the community, and developing ‘progressive’ linkages between government and the communities.
The focus will then turn to the development of programmatic activities in four interrelated areas (1) linking public school education (K-8) to neighborhood development (2) housing rehabilitation and sustainable affordable housing development, (3) business training and commercial corridor development, and (4) promoting healthy eating and active living.
The third phase will involve building interactive linkages to local government and to other neighborhoods in the metropolitan region. The role of local government is to support neighborhood development by facilitating community initiatives and providing funding to prime the developmental pump. The creation of positive interactive linkages with local government will only occur through intentional effort. Likewise, it is not possible to completely transform the Fruit Belt and Martin Luther King, Jr. neighborhoods, while other communities languish in distress. Therefore, these communities must not only establish partnerships within in the community, but also they must build operational unity with other neighborhoods across the metropolis.
ALLSTATE Minority & Women Emerging Entrepreneurs Program
The Allstate Minority and Women Emerging Entrepreneurs (MWEE) program is a joint venture by the University at Buffalo School of Management’s Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and the University at Buffalo Center for Urban Studies. The program’s mission is to construct a pathway that enables minority and women entrepreneurs to move their companies to the next stage of development.
The program is designed to accomplish the following objectives:
- Enable protégés to forge relationships with successful business owners and executives who will become both teachers and role models.
- Provide protégés with technical advice on the varied aspects of running a small business.
- Assist protégés in formulating clear objectives and outcomes to guide the development of their businesses.
- Help protégés formulate realistic business goals and timetables and develop strategies for achieving them.
- Provide protégés with information about existing organizations and resources, public and private, that can assist with the development of their businesses and help them understand the importance of networking and obtaining membership in business organizations.
The Highland Avenue project is a New York Brownfield Opportunity Area program. The goal of the project is to produce a Master Plan and Brownfields Areas Nomination Document that will guide the transformation of 560 acres within the Highland community and will turn the area into a healthier and more prosperous neighborhood and business destination. The project is funded by the City of Niagara Falls.
The project, as envisioned, will be an 18-month study split into four (4) phases. Phase one was initiated in January 2008, with the Nomination Document expected to be completed in early 2010. The CENTER’s role in this project is to direct the community outreach component. Toward this end, the CENTER has developed the most comprehensive outreach project in the New York State BOA. The six week mini-course in Brownfield Development is the most innovative aspect of the outreach program. Another innovative component has been the CENTER’s use of GIS to track and monitor participation levels among the different residential areas in the community.
Projects Sponsored by the CENTER
Applied Research
The Cuba Project
Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. -- This project focuses on neighborhood life and culture in Cuba since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. The project is particularly focused on the Cuban approach to community development and governance issues, especially the practical application of the Cuban method of representative government and participatory democracy. The project is also concerned with the socio-cultural impact of international tourism on everyday life and culture in Cuba. The project situates the island within a Caribbean and American context and looks at the interactive relationship between Cuba and other third world countries in the Americas, especially Venezuela.
The Cuba Project’s first major work is Inside El Barrio: A Bottom-Up View of Neighborhood Life in Castro’s Cuba (Kumarian Press, 2009) by Professor Henry Louis Taylor, Jr.
The abrupt collapse of the Soviet Union and the East European Communist Bloc in 1989 plunged Cuba into a catastrophic economic crisis that spawned unprecedented hardship, magnified social tensions, and emigration in the thousands. In July 1990, a somber Fidel Castro called upon the masses to prepare for a sustained period of hard times.
Inside El Barrio charts the legacy of Fidel Castro through the unique lens of Cuban household life during this El Período Especial (the Special Period). Taylor traverses the neighborhoods and residential developments of Havana between 1989 and 2006, the final and most complex period in the ‘Age of Castro’s Cuba’ to uncover the hidden vibrancy of Cuba’s streets and citizens. In doing so a deeper understanding of Cuban society is illuminated through the exploration of what it means to live in a people-centered nation and the importance of neighborhoods in shaping everyday life and culture.
The book offers a detailed portrait of daily life in Havana that shows how Cuba’s socialist system operates “on the ground,” and it provides a theoretically rich discussion of Cuban urban life and how Cubans in Havana go about constructing a neighborhood and sense of community. (Go to Kumarian Press and read more about the book)
Democracy and University Assisted Schools and Community Development
Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. -- This project involves the study of the role of universities in the development of authentic community schools and the transformation of distressed neighborhoods into thriving communities based on participatory democracy, cosmopolitanism, reciprocity, and social justice. In this project, social justice is a broad term that includes the elimination of all forms of injustice (racial, economic, political). Central to this work is the study of participatory democracy and its role in urban educational reform, the community development process, and the transformation of the urban metropolis.
Bad Spot in the City: Black Suburbanization, Urban Planning, and the Metropolitan Building Process –Cincinnati, 1900 to 1950
Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. – This is a book project that grapples with the interplay among public policy, urban planning, metropolitan development and the ghettoization of the African American population. The thesis is that the creation of the ghetto-slum and distressed urban neighborhoods was the result of a metropolitan building process that intentionally sought to create a bifurcated region in which blacks and low-income whites were concentrated in central cities dominated by rental housing, while high income workers and middle-class whites would live in a suburban region dominated by owner-occupied housing. It is hypothesized that during this period, planners and city leaders had a “one-big city” view of the monocentric metropolitan region and saw no contradiction in creating this racial and class based urban duality. The story is told through an analysis of the experiences of black migrants, who sought to “better their condition” by building crudely constructed homes in the newly developing suburban region of Cincinnati and the opposition they encountered in the quest to realize their dreams.
Community Development Projects
Now in its sixth year, TheCyberHood is a collaborative undertaking between the CENTER and the Urban Affairs Association. Its mission is to create a virtual community where students, scholars, practitioners, and social scientists from across the race and class divide can find each other, share information, exchange ideas, and build professional relationships. TheCyberHood has a Listserv with over 3,000 members worldwide and receives about 800 hits monthly with about 10% coming from outside the United States. During the 2007-2008 academic year, individuals visited TheCyberHood from 26 countries, including Asia, the Pacific Rim, Australia, Europe and North America.
TheCyberHood is a portal through which scholars and practitioners can gain access to studies, papers, and reports on community planning and development. Through its featured paper, TheCyberHood highlights important scholarship in urban studies and stimulates discussion over select topics. Through its featured site and program, TheCyberHood brings attention to the scholarly and practical activities of departments, institutions, organizations, and groups around the country. It also maintains an archive of syllabi on urban issues, which many scholars find useful. Lastly, the library link facilitates the work of scholars and students by providing a pathway to some of the most important sites in select areas, such as housing and neighborhoods, health and government.
Professor Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. is the creator of TheCyberHood and Professor Robert Silverman is the web moderator. The editorial board consists of Dr. Mark Braun, SUNY Cobleskill, Dr. Kenneth Chilton, Research Director, the State of Kentucky, Dr. Matthew Dalbey, AICP, US Environmental Protection Agency, Dr. Henry Durand, University at Buffalo, David Fasenfest, Wayne State University, Dr. Norman Krumholz, Cleveland State University, Dr. Muthusami Kumaran, University of Hawaii, Dr. Richard Lloyd, Morgan State university, Dr. Kelly Patterson, University at Buffalo, Dr. Rhonda Phillips, Arizona State University, Dr. Alex Schwartz, New School, Dr. Brad Smith, Wayne State University, and Dr. Henry Louis Taylor, Jr., University at Buffalo.
ADVANCE – A Quarterly E-Newsletter
The mission of ADVANCE is to provide commentary on issues that impact the transformation of distressed communities. Social and racial justice is the theme that undergirds essays appearing in ADVANCE. The goal is to provoke thoughtful reflection on a range of critical issues that impede the advancement of people of color, working class whites, and those locked out of the centers of power. ADVANCE features neighborhood and community development projects at the local, national, and internally levels, which provide insight into ways to transform distressed communities.
Upcoming Conference Presentations
“Perceptions of Nonprofit Funding Decisions: A Survey of Local Public Administrators and Executive Directors of Community-Based Housing Organizations”
Silverman, Robert Mark. (CBHOs).”Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA, November 20-22, 2008.
The paper is an extension of a larger body of research examining CBHOs in American cities. It combines the results from two national surveys examining local nonprofit funding decisions. In one, local public administrators were surveyed. In the other, CBHO executive directors were surveyed. The paper’s findings provide insights into the effects of local decision-making processes on nonprofit funding. These insights improve our understanding of the connection between funding patterns, public-nonprofit sector relations, local governance, and administrative structures.
“African American Tourism as a Catalyst for Inner City Economic and Community Development”
Taylor, Henry Louis, Jr., Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C. October 12 – 15, 2008.
This paper is part of a larger body of research that examines the use of tourism as an economic development tool. This study explored the interplay between city building, the redevelopment of distressed inner city communities, and African American tourism. The thesis is that the growing black tourism markets provide urban leaders of cities with significant African American populations with a unique opportunity not only to redevelop select distressed communities, but also the opportunity to bolster the local economy. Every black community has a history that can be framed in a novel and interesting way to appeal to a broader tourist market. However, to realize this potential, leaders must be prepared to redevelop key areas of the black community as a tourist infrastructure and link black tourist venues to other aspects of the tourist market.
