The Center for Community Innovation (CCI) nurtures effective solutions that expand economic opportunity, diversify housing options, and strengthen connection to place. The work of the center focuses on four topic areas:
- Revitalizing neighborhoods
- Developing economic resilience
- Designing and programming for the public realm
- Producing and preserving affordable housing.
CCI acts primarily as evaluator, supporter, and translator of local innovation. We uncover the innovative practices that community and local actors create to address housing, community and economic development problems. Our focus is on “strong market” regions and how their economic growth and physical development patterns can become more equitable and inclusive.
CCI adopts a community-based research approach that builds a research agenda out of community concerns, but finds answers using rigorous academic methods.We aim to make academic research more accessible to stakeholders by interacting throughout the research process, from developing research questions to crafting a methodology to thinking through our findings. We also build the capacity of nonprofits and government through convening practitioner leaders, providing technical assistance and student interns, and interpreting academic research.
