University Times

Pitt’s Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC) received a $200,000 renewal (“New Directions”) grant from the Office of University Partnerships, part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The HUD grants, totaling $6.7 million nationally, help community colleges, four-year colleges and universities to establish, operate and maintain Community Outreach Partnership Centers to address the problems of urban areas.

According to the announcement, Pitt intends to use its COPC New Directions grant to continue the work started by their original COPC focusing on the bordering-campus neighborhoods of Hazelwood, Central Oakland, South Oakland, West Oakland and Oak Hill. The COPC outreach agenda will focus on two areas: community organizing for public and environmental safety and active living and youth development.

In Hazelwood and South Oakland, Pitt’s COPC will address public and environmental safety through undergraduate service learning and community outreach organizing by engaging efforts of University Honors College students.

In the HOPE VI community of Oak Hill and in West Oakland, the center will target active living initiatives, particularly youth recreation and development, the HUD renewal announcement said.