The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of University Partnerships helps support the process of forming higher education-community development partnerships through its Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) and Joint Community Development (JCD) initiatives. This handbook describes COPC and JCD initiatives for building partnerships with community development corporations (CDCs) to more effectively plan and carry out projects to improve their neighborhoods. The handbook emphasizes higher education partnerships with CDCs designed to strengthen the human, organizational, economic, and physical capacity of neighborhoods and their residents. Seven sections examine: community development and CDCs; the nature and complexities of higher education-community development partnerships and lessons learned from these partnerships; the role and experiences of colleges and universities in creating new CDCs; ways that universities can support new or existing CDCs; university-CDC partnerships for physical development in neighborhoods; the role of higher education institutions for working with CDCs in community economic development; and conclusions. An appendix presents definitions and procedures for CDC incorporation. (Contains 53 references.) (SM)