Linguists understand metaphors to be shortcuts to an individual's tacit knowledge about the world. As ethnographers and planners building a university-school partnership and seeking to understand residents' perceptions of their urban neighbourhood, attention to use of metaphor allowed us insight into an insider's mental model of who is in the…

In the fall of 2009, the Boston Foundation announced a new strategic framework, "Thriving People, Vibrant Places", to guide much of its work for the next five years. The framework had its roots in a larger strategic direction first taken by the Foundation's Board of Directors in 2001. At that time, the Board believed the Boston…

Practice and inquiry into school-community connections have been guided by problematic assumptions about the role of neighborhood schools, community based institutions, and local economic development policies in the evolution of urban communities. Formal relationships between schools and urban neighborhoods grounded in these assumptions have been…

Despite declines in youth violence nationally in the past decade, incidence of youth violence and victimization--from assaults to homicide--continue to be pressing concerns in public safety and public health. Youth violence is also a particular concern for low-income, minority communities, where poverty, family instability, and unemployment…

When the most recent generation of community building initiatives (CCIs) was launched in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the field wanted to invest in and learn about the effectiveness of a kind of initiative that was meant to bring together the best of what had been learned during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s about how to go about promoting change…

Urban universities are often characterized as economic engines--directly and indirectly serving the needs of the communities within which they are situated. However, the relationship between urban universities and their neighbors is often strained. Reflecting on the University of Illinois at Chicago's Neighborhoods Initiative (UICNI) and its…

This document is a tour guide to the historical features of the seaports of Black Rock and Southport in the town of Fairfield, Connecticut. It is designed to acquaint visitors and residents with the stages of development that shaped both ports and the way that Fairfield has evolved through wars, depressions, and periods of prosperity over the…