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Since
its founding in 1988, the Howard Samuels State Management and
Policy Center has become an important source for comparative state and city
research and political analysis.
In the past two decades, the
roles of state and local governments have increased greatly as federalist
policies are pursued and power is devolved away from the federal government
to more local structures. As a result, the need for applied research
on state and city level policy and politics has never been greater.
The Samuels Center works to fulfill that need by publishing reports on
politics and policy on the state and city level.
Our mission is to advance and
promote democracy by focusing on those areas of research and public policy
that increase access and participation to the political process, and foster
equity and quality of services for marginalized groups. Center
research emphasizes education, welfare policy, community
development, empowerment zones, and youth organizing. The
role of community based organizations is central to the policy research in
each area. The Center also takes an active role in expanding
democratic discourse by convening conferences and seminars on these topics
then publishing and disseminating their results.
In addition, the Samuels Center
places a high priority on training researchers and scholars, and in an
effort to promote diversity in the social sciences, the Samuels Center has
made a point of seeking out talented women and minority scholars interested
in urban policy. The Center has provided dozens of graduate students
the opportunity to get hands-on experience doing original research in the
field as well as writing and publishing reports and journal articles while
supporting their attainment of a post graduate degree.
The
Scholars of the Future
The Howard Samuels Center, by
employing graduate students on its research projects, helps students
finance their education while providing them with invaluable practical
experience in urban research. This experience furthers the students’ careers
while ensuring that there will be a diverse work force devoted to urban
issues that relate to democracy.
Kathe Newman, who currently has
a post-doctoral appointment at the Center for Urban Policy Research at
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and teaches at Rutgers, worked as a
Research Associate at the Samuels Center from 1992 - 1999. "The
Samuels Center provided opportunities that allowed me to develop extensive
research experience on a variety of areas including community development,
federal urban policy, urban politics, community activism and community
organizing, urban education, and social policy. I honed both my
qualitative and quantitative methodological skills by working on these
projects. My work on the Empowerment Zone project, the CDCs in three
cities project, and the study looking at race and gender in CDCs, gave me a
thorough understanding of many of the issues involved with community
development--the benefits and pitfalls. It was this experience that led to
my current position at Rutgers.”
Laura McKenna is another
Samuels Center alumnus. “During my eight years at the HSC, I
participated in a number of studies, including research on the
implementation of reforms at NYC Probation Department and the NYC Board of
Education, the reason why students leave the CUNY colleges, and state
education reform. I acquired qualitative and quantitative research
skills that are beyond the scope of most graduate students. These
experiences have enabled me to pursue my own research on school vouchers
and my work as an education consultant for the Metiri Group. Even
more importantly, Marilyn exposed me to new ideas -- the importance of
improving schools, the needs of disadvantaged groups, the political role of
women, and the position of cities in American politics. These
concerns have helped shape my own politics and the direction of my future
research. I am deeply indebted to Marilyn and the HSC.”
Carol Archer’s work at the
Samuels Center provided her the research experience and the financial support
essential to completing her degree. She now is head of the Department
of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Technology in Jamaica,
and serves on the Board of Directors of the Statistical Institute of
Jamaica.
Francois Pierre-Louis, recently
appointed Assistant Professor of Political Science at Queens College and
heads a Haitian-American community center in Brooklyn, worked at the
Samuels Center for seven years. “At the Howard Samuels Center not only
did I learn how to do research,” he relates, “but I had the opportunity to
apply these skills to the study of current public policy issues, including
the federal Empowerment Zone Program.
The Samuels Center also
administers scholarship programs that aid minority students studying urban
policy. Under a grant from the National Science Foundation the
Samuels Center managed a project entitled “Graduate Research Traineeships
on Human Capital in Urban Communities”. Five African American and
Latino students participated in the program, which began in September 1996
and was completed in August 2001. The students took a sequence of
courses on research methodology, theoretical approaches to understanding
human capital, as well as undertook institutional studies of families,
neighborhoods, schools, work places and labor markets. Having
successfully completed these courses the students were then required to
participate in apprenticeships on faculty research projects, conducting
research and contributing to and writing papers on the topic of human capital
in an urban context. The five trainees have published articles in
peer-reviewed journals, authored and co-authored books or chapters in
books, and presented papers they have written at conferences. All are
making excellent progress in attaining their doctoral degrees.
In the past the Samuels Center
has administered similar projects. From 1990 to 1994 the Center
obtained a grant from the Aaron Diamond Foundation that financed the
Diamond Minority Scholars Program. The program sponsored minority
students seeking a Ph.D. at the CUNY Graduate School, providing financial
aid, health coverage, research stipends, opportunities to conduct original
research, and academic counseling and guidance.
GRANTS
The Samuels Center is widely
respected for undertaking important research tasks and getting valuable
results. This is reflected in the Center’s long history of grants,
provided by many first rank foundations and other highly respected
institutions.
January 17, 2003
Ford Foundation — $300,000 for “Assessing community Change: Evaluation of
the Ford Fund for Community Organizing”
May 1, 2002
The Anne E. Casey Foundation — $28,000 for the “Welfare Reform and the
College Option: Lessons Learned”
October 1, 2001
The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation — $395,000 for the “Documentation and
Evaluation of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation 2001-02 Intermediary
Support Program of Emerging Organizations”
September 1, 2000
The Ford Foundation — $535,000 for the “Democracy Project”
September 1, 2000
The Rockefeller Foundation — $520,000 for the “Democracy Project”
June 1, 1998
Mc Arthur Foundation — $85,000 for “Empowerment Zones Planning &
Implementation Experiences of Several Cities”
January 1, 1998
The Rockefeller Foundation — $100,000 for “Metropolitan Linkages Project”
September 1, 1997
NSF (National Science Foundation) — $ 562,500 for “Graduate Research
Traineeships on Human Capital in Urban Communities”
February 1, 1997
McAuley Institute — $ 100,000 for “Women & Community Development”
March 1, 1996
The Ford Foundation — $100,000 for “Building Community Capacity: An
Assessment of Community Development”
March 1, 1996
The Ford Foundation — $250,000 for “Multi State Study & Seminar on
State Politics and Urban Schools”
March 1, 1996
The Ford Foundation — $350,000 for “CDCs and Neighborhood Development”
January 1, 1996
McArthur Foundation — $150,000 for “Empowerment Zones & Neighborhood
Development Organizations”
November 1, 1995
The Rockefeller Brothers Funds — $60,000 for “School Reform & Community
Capacity Building”
September 1, 1995
The Aspen Institute — $20,000 for “Race, Gender & Community
Empowerment: A Comparative State Study”
March 1, 1995
The Ford Foundation — $50,000 for “Community Development Organizations: An
Investigation of FAC”
January 1, 1995
The Ford Foundation — $75,000 for “Regimes & Reforms”
January 1, 1995
MacArthur Foundation — $75,000 for “Empowerment Zones & Neighborhood
Development”
September 15, 1994
NSF (National Science Foundation) — $45,000 for “Urban Systemic Initiative
Program”
March 1, 1994
Wagner Institute — $38,000 for AFDC Study
June 1, 1993
The Ford Foundation — $50,000 for “Analysis of School Finance Reform and
Its Impact on American Education”
March 19, 1993
MacArthur Foundation — $50,000 for “The Responsiveness of Community-Based
Economic Development”
January 1, 1992
The Aspen Institute — $50,000 for “Community Economic Development
Organizations and Activities: The Impact on Women”
July 1, 1991
Hunt Alternative Fund — $10,000 for “Women and Community Economic
Development Organizations”
October 21, 1990
Aaron Diamond Foundation — $130,000 for “NYC Public Schools: A Public
Policy Initiative”
June 1, 1990
The Ford Foundation — $100,000 for “Research on the Effect of State
Welfare Policies Providing”
CURRENT PROJECTS
In the 2000-2001 academic year
the Center is completing and publishing two studies, one that marks the
completion of our research on the Empowerment Zones and another on state
education politics and urban school reform. Work on welfare reform
continues, specifically, the development of the national network of
researchers and the research for two studies, a comparative study of state
welfare policies and an evaluation of the welfare to work programs in
Baltimore, New York and California. Research has begun on the
Center’s first international project, a study of democratic reform of local
government and school systems that will focus on increasing the political
access of marginalized groups. We are also in the process of
conducting an evaluation of a Ford Foundation community organizing effort.
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