Mission
The Center for Urban and Regional Affairs aligns University of Minnesota resources to catalyze community-driven change.
Vision
As a nationally recognized model for university-community partnership, we collaborate with community and local government to advance smart and equitable decision making, investments, and policies that benefit all of Minnesota’s diverse communities.
Values
- Deep Partnership. Research and technical assistance are developed through deep relationships with our partners. We work together to shape projects, co-developing key questions, goals, and methods.
- Shared Expertise. Community members, CURA staff, and the researchers we support all provide important and necessary expertise and perspectives.
- Excellence. We produce high-quality, innovative, and actionable research and technical assistance for solution-oriented application to real world problems.
- Racial Equity. We strive to address systemic racial inequities and advance solutions that are explicit about race and recognize intersectionality with other forms of marginalization.
- Social Justice. We engage in research and technical assistance that helps develop narratives, transform relationships, shift power, and change policies and practices in ways that advance justice.
- Organizing as a Form of Leadership. We invest in the leadership and action of communities most impacted by injustice and inequity, supporting them to turn their resources into the power required to make real change.
