The Center for Human Environments (CHE), one of 30 Research Centers and Institutes located at the City University of New York Graduate Center, brings together psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, health professionals, designers and planners whose research addresses the relationship between people and their physical settings. CHE offers a forum for environmental research where the primary emphasis is on examining the problems faced by neighborhoods, schools, community organizations, not-for-profits, policy-makers, and government agencies.

CHE is comprised of five separate research groups, representing the major areas of expertise and interest of its Graduate School faculty affiliates: the Children's Environments Research Group, the Health and Society Research Group, the Housing Environments Research Group, the Public Space Research Group, and the Youth Studies Research Group. CHE also partners with ActKnowledge, an organization located at the Graduate Center that works with community groups, not-for-profits, foundations, and government agencies to understand, evaluate, and transform programs and policies and to disseminate research findings.

Sponsors of recent CHE research projects have included: the United Nations/UNICEF; National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute; the National Science Foundation; the US Department of the Interior; the Ford, Rockefeller, Spencer, W. T. Grant, Surdna, Overbrook and Russell Sage Foundations; and several corporate funders. In the period 2006-2008, CHE projects have provided salaries and/or stipends for more than 60 students from the Graduate Center (or occasionally from elsewhere in the CUNY system). Eight faculty members from the Graduate Center or other CUNY divisions were engaged as Principal Investigators on CHE projects over the same period.

Here are some of the projects undertaken by CHE-affiliated researchers:

• development of measures to help implement the United Nations/UNICEF goal of "child-friendly cities" around the world
• "Youth Polling for Justice": a survey of the experiences of NYC youth with educational, healthcare, and criminal justice institutions
• evaluation of the College Initiative program at Lehman College, which connects formerly incarcerated men and women with opportunities for college education
• changing use of free time among children in a Vermont town
• urban youth programs in the US and their relationship to community and social justice
• The CUNY Campaign Against Diabetes: a five-year public health effort to raise awareness about diabetes and to disseminate prevention and management programs across the CUNY system
• perception of healthcare discrimination and self-care behaviors among minorities with Type 2 diabetes
• patterns of use of an enclosed public market in Brooklyn (Moore Market)
• ethnographies of Fire Island National Seashore and the Statue of Liberty National Monument
• public policy and teen women's sexuality
• sexual quality of life for female cancer survivors
• trajectories of disadvantage for the homeless mentally ill
• assessing housing insecurity among low-income New Yorkers
• documenting the impact of the Urban Development Corporation housing program through photography: a traveling exhibition at CUNY, MIT, and Roger Williams University