The Urban Initiatives Office provides staff support to the Committee on Urban Initiatives, whose goal is to bring the benefit of psychological research and practice to efforts to improve life for the people in the cities, focusing on four broad fronts: family, schools, workplace, and community. In supporting the work of the Committee on Urban Initiatives, this program implements efforts to bring what psychology knows into the discussions of the critical problems facing the cities (e.g., a conference designed to share with front-line job trainers psychologists’ expertise in skills training, motivations, identifying mental health and substance abuse problems, and so forth; and a conference bringing psychology’s expertise in evaluation and program development into efforts to identify and promote the educational innovations and school reforms that work). This office also serves as an information and referral source on urban issues and develops and disseminates other information as relevant.

A representative sample of Urban Initiatives Office information appears below.