The Institute for Urban Research and Development is now known as the Institute for Urban Initiatives.

(click here: www.urban-initiatives.org)

The Institute for Urban Research and Development (IURD) has restructured its community and economic development activities that include:

• Community-Based Research
• Affordable Housing Development
• Economic Development
• Homeless Service Programs
• Neighborhood Revitalization

and renamed itself the Institute for Urban Initiatives after successfully completing a series of partnerships and mergers with several other community and economic development agencies.

Mergers

During the past year, several community-based and faith-based research agencies have merged with IURD as the Institute for Urban Initiatives in order to respond to the economic, housing, and social needs of neighborhoods, cities, and counties from local community, regional, national, international, and faith-based perspectives. These institutions include:

• Institute for Affordable Housing and Homeless Research
  
  
• Institute for Community Psychology
  
  
• Institute for Transnational Research and Development
  
  
• Institute for Vital Economic and Neighborhood Development
  
  
• Institute for Faith-Based Initiatives
  
  
• Institute for the Urban Monk
  

Partnerships

During the past year, the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and IURD have taken the affordable housing developments of IURD and created the non-profit Episcopal Housing Alliance as part of Bishop J. Jon Bruno’s “Faith-Based Community and Economic Development Initiative.”

During the past year, the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and IURD have taken the economic development activities of IURD known as Mama’s Hot Tamales Café and created Episcopal Economic Development as a subsidiary of the Episcopal Housing Alliance and as part of Bishop J. Jon Bruno’s “Faith-Based Community and Economic Development Initiative.”

The Institute for Urban Initiatives has also helped advance Fuller Theological Seminary’s commitment to resolving issues facing urban communities through faith-based public and private partnerships by partnering with the seminary’s Office for Urban Initiatives which provides students with opportunities to strengthen their education through community-based research, practical community service, and spiritual integration.

During the past few years, IURD has designed and implemented several homeless services programs that have been successfully transitioned to other local non-profit agencies. Programs and agencies include the following:

• PATH Achieve – Glendale which consists of a street outreach team, one-stop social services center, emergency shelter, transitional housing, and permanent supportive housing and is currently operated by PATH (People Assisting the Homeless);
  
  
• Project Achieve – El Monte which consists of a street outreach team, one-stop social services center, emergency shelter, and transitional housing and is currently operated by the California Hispanic Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse;
  
  
• Riverside Emergency Shelter – which consists of two shelters—one for single men and the other for families—and is currently operated by Path of Life Ministries;
  
  
• Project Achieve – Long Beach which consists of an emergency shelter for single adults and is currently operated by Catholic Charities of Los Angeles.

Also, during the past several years, IURD has designed and implemented a neighborhood revitalization effort that has helped transform the City of Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park neighborhood from a crime-filled point of destination to a thriving business and social/cultural point of destination in partnership with Alliance: MacArthur Park. IURD will further the partnership as the Institute for Urban Initiatives.

For more information contact Joe Colletti, PhD
at JoeColletti@urban-initiatives.org.

TOP