LESSONS FROM THE COMMUNITY OUTREACH PARTNERSHIP CENTER PROGRAM

In 1994, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched the
Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC) program to foster and support collaborations
between institutions of higher education and their communities. COPC is HUD's primary vehicle
for engaging colleges and universities in community development. HUD commissioned the
Urban Institute to review the experience of a sample of early COPC grantees in order to distill
lessons about the challenges and contributions of campus-community partnerships and about
how community outreach efforts like those supported by COPC are being institutionalized by
colleges and universities. This report, based on the experience of 25 COPC grantees and their
partners, presents the results of that review and analysis.