Dr. Brittany Lewis, CURA’s senior research associate, has been named a 2021 Community-Engaged Scholar. Dr. Lewis directs CURA’s large-scale community-based action research agenda advancing interdisciplinary public scholarship in urban studies, African American studies, gender studies, and public policy while maintaining her role as a community activist and thought leader.

The President’s Community-Engaged Scholar systemwide award program recognizes up to ten scholars—faculty or professional academic or administrative employees (P&A)—each year for exemplary community-engaged scholarship in their respective field(s) of inquiry. From a competitive pool of Community-Engaged…

Hennepin County Board of Commissioners approved a contract with the Center of Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) to establish an Anti-Displacement Workgroup related to the design and construction of the METRO Blue Line Extension light rail. This action to invest in anti-displacement is intended to support corridor residents, businesses, and equitable development in the corridor.

Workgroup will comprise diverse perspectives

With community input, the project team designed an initial work plan, and local groups submitted proposals for the contract. A committee with corridor community and business…

We believe that support and fair treatment of individuals with criminal records is fundamental for a functioning society. The fact that our criminal justice systems create disparities means our society is not working properly. Criminal records impact individuals and families far beyond the punishment of a crime and keep people from living a good life, which everyone has a right to.

Project Goals

As a project-based initiative, we seek projects and work that align with our values and goals to support our mission and vision. 

  • Community - Lived experience equals expertise in our book. We…
  • Many 911 systems in the United States use older technologies that struggle to account for the diverse ways of communicating during an emergency or disaster, and dispatchers taking calls must make rapid decisions based on limited information. While newer technology can identify callers’ locations, there is an opportunity to explore how technology can assist in determining the reason for the call and suggesting appropriate responses.

    Given this opportunity, HUP recently coordinated a connection between Hennepin County and Professors Tom Fisher (College of…

    Dr. Anthony Damiano

    Congratulations to Dr. Anthony Damiano on earning his PhD from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. As a graduate student and PhD candidate, Dr. Damiano has been a valuable part of CURA’s team, working on research projects covering gentrification, racially concentrated areas of affluence, and rent stabilization, among other topics.

    Here is an overview of his dissertation presentation Urban Development and Change in an Age of Inequality:

  • The extent to which U.S. metro areas have “inverted” (a situation in which the central city neighborhoods are higher status than suburban areas), and finds that more than half of the largest 100 metro areas in the…
  • The Neighborhood Leadership and Organizing program wishes to congratulate recent graduates of our Spring 2021 Neighborhoods Now! cohort. Neighborhoods Now! is an innovative community educational series to strengthen the work of individuals and organizations working in neighborhoods so they can organize to win issues for people and places, build power to change systems for racial equity and economic justice, build organizations whose leadership is reflective of the community, and build diverse and effective cross…

    The Hennepin-University Partnership's (HUP) project to connect the Hennepin County Elections Division with University of Minnesota student volunteers to process absentee ballots has been recognized with an Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties (NACo). The award honors innovative, effective county government programs that strengthen services for residents. 

    For this partnership in the 2016 general and 2018 midterm elections, a total of 600 students provided 3,000 hours of volunteer effort. Mark Chapin, the Director over the Elections Division, praised the partnership. “Without the hundreds of student volunteers helping to process and count absentee ballots…

    Announcement from CLA Commencement 2021 website. The virtual commencement is Sunday, May 16, 1 p.m. CDT.

    Dr. Brittany Lewis delivering CLA’s 2021 virtual Commencement ceremony keynote speech. Image from LATIS Video Services

    Dr. Brittany Lewis is a well-respected community engaged qualitative scholar, thought leader, speaker, and author known for bringing those most often locked out of local decision-making processes to the action research table. Dr. Lewis is the Founder and CEO of Research in Action, an urban research, evaluation, community…

    CURA is pleased to announce the recipients of this year′s Fesler-Lampert Chair in Urban and Regional Affairs and Faculty Interactive Research Program Award

    Forrest Fleischman from the Department of Forest Resources is the 2021-2022 Fesler-Lampert Chair in Urban and Regional Affairs with this project, Urban Environmental Policy Advocacy: How Citizens Shape Cities’ Environmental Policy Agenda in the Twin Cities.

    Additionally, three Faculty Interactive Research Program proposals were funded:

    • Samuel S. David (Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of…
    Rashad Williams

    Rashad Williams, a CURA Research Assistant and Public Affairs PhD Candidate at the Humphrey School, was recently selected by the City of Burlington, VT to co-lead a study on the extensive history of anti-Black racism within the state of Vermont and to develop racial reparations proposals for Burlington. Rashad has previously written on what he has termed “reparative planning”–a normative planning theory that centers the demands of corrective (or reparative)…

    Too many people in the Twin Cities region do not have access to safe, healthy, affordable, and reliable housing. In particular, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) communities, people with disabilities, and low-wealth communities face barriers to this critical resources. Market conditions have shown that the housing market does not work for most low-income people, so solutions may require questioning long held assumptions, creating innovative solutions, and attempting new ideas to address housing stability.

    To address these challenges and identify solutions, the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) and the …

    Scott Vargo is the Hennepin-University Partnership's new Director

    We are excited to announce Scott Vargo as the new Hennepin-University Partnership Director. Scott is taking over for the recently retired HUP Director Kathie Doty, HUP’s founding director who led the partnership for over 15 years and grew it into a nationally recognized model for cross-sector collaboration. With new leadership HUP will continue to coordinate partnerships that reinforce the mission and goals of both the University of Minnesota and Hennepin County. 

    Scott most recently worked at Hennepin County’s Center of Innovation and Excellence. He is committed to supporting…

    Program Time Frame: January 2021 - January 2022

    Desired Start Date: Late December 2020 to early January 2021

    Compensation: Negotiable

    Proposal due date: December 18, 2020 on or before 10:00 a.m. Closing date for all questions: December 04, 2020 before 10:00 a.m.

    Pre-proposal conference: if Applicable

    For more information, questions, or concerns, please contact Laurel Lilligren (llilligren@peopleservingpeople.org; 612-252-4027).

    RFP Background

    People Serving People,…