Outreach Programs

UMass Outreach

The Center for Economic Development (CED)

The Center for Economic Development is a research and community-oriented technical assistance center that is partially funded by the Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. As an EDA Center housed at the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, it fits well with the Department's long tradition of outreach to Massachusetts' cities and towns, and is well suited to meet EDA's mission, goals and objectives. As a case in point, its faculty and students have worked on economic development issues in more than 200 cities and towns in the past ten years. As well, its faculty has specializations that include industrial development, retail/commercial development, tourism, marketing, employment training, quantitative analysis and data analysis.

The Center's role is to provide technical assistance to communities, undertake critical community based studies, disseminate information, and to enhance local and multi-community capacity for strategic planning and development. This approach is designed to relate the concerns and goals of commerce and industry to those of the broader community. The Center can then work closely with both community and business sectors, providing information and assistance needed for growth, management, and public benefit. The Center's clientele and cooperators reflect that the Center does indeed work well with all sectors: community development corporations, state agencies, municipalities, regional planning agencies, developers, business leaders, chambers of commerce, local officials, public groups and the managers of firms.

The Center for Rural Massachusetts (CRM)

The Center for Rural Massachusetts was established at the University of Massachusetts in 1985 because a new set of problems had arisen in the rural part of the state, driven by rapid economic growth in urban areas, a widespread belief that uncontrolled growth posed a major threat to natural and built rural environments, major changes in the rural economy, and concerns about the welfare of rural residents.

In the first decade of its existance, the Center's efforts addressed these problems through a program of applied research focusing on ways that growth could be managed and controlled through actions of rural communities. In retrospect, these efforts were quite successful, and the measures proposed in Center publications have been studied and adopted not only in Massachusetts, but also elsewhere in the United States and the world. Some former employees of the Center now hold highly significant planning positions in urbanizing parts of America, and others are writing about ideas initiated here in Massachusetts.

Starting in the middle part of the 1990's, the Center changed in two ways. One was to provide assistance and support to two new programs directed at rural Massachusetts communities. One of these was the Massachusetts Rural Development Council, and the other the Massachusetts Citizen Planner Training Collaborative.

The second change was tighter integration with activities in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning. The Director's Report for 1996 to 2001 provides details on these activities.

Citizen Planner Training Collaborative (CPTC)

The Citizen Planner Training Collaborative provides local planning and zoning officials with tools to make effective decisions regarding their community's current and future land use.

• Training workshops delivering a Level I and Level 2 core curriculm, taught twice a year across the state by expert attorneys and professonal planners.
• Internet access to core training units, a bylaw collection, many planning related links, training calendars, and e-mail discussion.
• On-demand training to any community needing to focus on a specific topic.
• One-day conferences addressing important land use issues on a more in-depth basis.

CPTC is a member of the Local Capacity Building Partnership - an affiliation of training providers assisting local officals in dealing with land use issues.


Urban Places Project (UPP)

UPP was founded in 1995 to provide urban design and neighborhood planning services to low-income, central neighborhoods in mid-sized cities, communities that have not traditionally had access to design and physical planning assistance. Co-founded by Associate Professors Patricia McGirr, and Henry Lu (of U.Mass), and Ann Forsyth (now at Harvard and continuning as a collaborator) UPP's twenty projects have integrated teaching, research, and service.

Using workshops, surveys, interviews, exhibitions, and small-group meetings the UPP works with neighborhood residents, officials, and business people to help articulate goals and create visions for neighborhoods or for particular sites. The Urban Places Project has particular expertise in open space planning and park design, vacant lot reuse, planning and design workshops, and neighborhood planning. UPP emphasizes both long-term visions and short-term redevelopment options. In many cases UPP also provides assistance in implementing initial phases of these plans through activities such as planting trees and cleaning up vacant lots. Over 150 students have been involved with UPP as interns and in classes.