Our Mission

The Community Outreach Partnership Center’s mission is to utilize university knowledge and resources to enhance the human and social capital of the Consolidated Urban Revitalization Area (CURA).

COPC Profile

The University of Northern Iowa, as part of its mission of providing educational resources to the community, created a Community Outreach Partnership Center that will address pressing needs for neighborhood organizing and planning; improvement of housing quality and opportunities; youth educational enrichment; and health improvement in the city of Waterloo, Iowa.  Waterloo is a small, ethnically diverse, industrial city with problems that mirror those of larger urban areas.  It contains substantial areas of deteriorated housing, occupied by families with very low incomes, of whom a large proportion are headed by single female breadwinners.  It also contains a substantial concentration of African Americans.

The target area for this project consists of the Consolidated Urban Revitalization Area, (CURA) identified by the City of Waterloo as the area containing the largest concentrations of poverty and substandard housing.  It also contains significant numbers of children and youth who are at risk of failure in the educational system.  Many children are also at risk of chronic health problems due to lead based paint exposure, because of the age and deteriorated of much of the housing in the CURA.  Both public and private entities have made strong commitments to the physical renewal of this area.  The mission of the COPC will be to support and augment these investments in the physical capital of the area by utilizing university knowledge and resources to enhance the human and social capital of this area.

Contact Information

Telephone

319-287-8164

FAX

319-273-7126

Postal address

500 E. 4th Street, Suite 415, Waterloo, IA 50703

Electronic mail

cheryl.faries@uni.edu