Urban Initiatives Office Fact Sheet

Mission Overview

APA's Urban Initiatives Office provides staff support to the Committee on Urban Initiatives (CUI). CUI’s mission is (1) to demonstrate and highlight psychology’s contribution to a greater understanding and amelioration of problems associated with urban life; (2) to identify, promote, and sustain those aspects of urban life that enhance individual and societal growth, development, and well-being; and (3) to encourage psychological research, training, and practice related to urban problems. The program also seeks to inform public policy, scientific research, and professional practice, with the ultimate intention of enhancing the quality of life for urban residents. The Urban Initiatives Office pursues this mission through the identification, integration, and distribution of scientific research and professional and community knowledge regarding those domains in which psychologists have demonstrated particular expertise: the family, the schools, the community, and the work environment.

Specific Initiatives

CUI works to develop and implement initiatives that apply psychological knowledge and principles to critical issues facing our cities, such as:

Urban Psychology

CUI is working on the conceptual development of "urban psychology" as an organizing framework for research and interventions that address the problems that affect our cities, while recognizing the strengths and resources of urban communities and the resilience of their residents. There are a multitude of potential topics known to psychologists that are salient to urban communities, including crime, violence, housing, homelessness, crowding, poverty, racism, social and cultural disintegration, immigration, and intergroup conflict. The Urban Initiatives Office is also developing a national network of urban psychologists (educators, researchers, evaluators, practitioners and others) who can serve as a resource for APA on urban issues.

To further develop a sense of psychology's contribution to urban issues, CUI regularly sponsors APA convention programming and encourages the publication of papers on psychology and urban initiatives, such as the June 1998 Psychology in the Public Forum section of American Psychologist. CUI also hosted a 1997 interdisciplinary conference that brought psychological theory together with practical strategies for employment and training professionals.

Public Safety and Urban Communities

CUI supports more effective public safety initiatives by identifying the areas in which psychology can contribute to improving the relationships between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve. CUI has sponsored Psychology and Law Enforcement Roundtables in several cities to bring together psychologists and local law enforcement officials for a dialog on how psychology can contribute to effective law enforcement. The Urban Initiatives Office also works to educate decision-makers and policy-makers on psychology's research on issues relevant to public policy in areas such as community policing and racial profiling.

Urban Poverty

CUI is committed to exploring the multi-faceted impact of poverty on urban families and communities, as well as the ways in which psychology can inform efforts to ameliorate the effects of poverty on individuals and communities. CUI put forth the APA Resolution on Poverty and Socioeconomic Status (available at www.apa.org/pi/urban/povres.html) , adopted in 2000. Several publications concerning the connection between work, poverty, and social programs were developed in conjunction with APA's Division 35 Task Force on Women, Poverty and Public Assistance, including Making Welfare to Work Really Work (available in full on-line at www.apa.org/pi/wpo/welftowork.html ) and Forgotten Voices: Conversations with Women on Welfare, also available on-line. The Urban Initiatives Office also works to inform public policy concerning poverty and the poor, such as welfare reform legislation and policies relevant to the public institutions comprising the safety net for the poor.

Effective Urban School Reform

CUI seeks to bring an urban focus to psychology's overall contribution to effective educational reform in terms of research on the teaching/learning process, effective evaluation methodologies, and effective interventions to facilitate both individual and systems change. Previous activities have explored topics such as recognizing diversity as a strength in urban schools; the impact of high stakes educational decision-making on students, teachers, and urban schools; the importance of incorporating social and emotional learning into academic achievement; and "scaling up" effective and innovative educational reform through the application of psychological expertise in evaluation and program development. To address the issue of "scaling up" effective school reform, CUI sponsored a conference entitled "Bringing to Scale Educational Innovation and School Reform: Partnerships in Urban Education." The report from this conference, co-sponsored by APA and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, is available on-line at www.apa.org/pi/urbaned/proceedtoc.html. The Urban Initiatives Office also works to inform national legislation, as well as state and local public policy, to educate policy-makers and decision-makers about effective school reform for urban communities.

Public Policy Advocacy

The Urban Initiatives Office also works with the APA Public Policy Office to inform legislative efforts, as well as other state and federal public policy initiatives, that address issues critical to urban communities, such as urban school reform, public safety, and public responses to poverty.

Information and Publications

Urban Initiatives Office staff provide information and referrals on a variety of urban issues, and work to develop and disseminate other relevant information to the public. For more information, please contact the Urban Initiatives Office.