Overview

Goals and focus of the research

The Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice in collaboration with the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University received primary funding from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for this six year research study.  The first phase of research, launched in November 2006, investigated the early implementation and community-building process at three, new mixed-income developments in Chicago.  The current phase of research, which began in October 2009, has three primary purposes:

  1. To interrogate the ideas and assumptions behind the mixed-income development policy and explore the ways in which the strategy is playing out on the ground.
  2. To investigate the community-building strategies implemented to create well-functioning communities within and around the new mixed-income developments.
  3. To understand the perspectives and experiences of residents who move into the new mixed-income developments and the ways in which living in these communities is affecting their lives.

In addition to contributing to the scholarly literature on community development, housing policy, social welfare, and related fields, the research seeks to inform a broad audience—including the developers and their social service partners, the Chicago Housing Authority, community and public agency stakeholders, and other local and national practitioners and policymakers—about the early unfolding of and emerging lessons from the mixed-income component of the Plan for Transformation.