CCCD Purpose

The Colorado Center for Community Development emphasizes a two-fold purpose: first, we provide a forum and an organizational structure that fosters and facilitates a holistic community and neighborhood development.  This builds local self-reliance, enhances the sense of community, and improves the quality of life in Colorado neighborhoods and communities.  Secondly, the advantageous location of CCCD in the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Colorado Denver enables us to access the skills and knowledge of faculty, staff and student employees to better engage with the communities we serve.

CCCD helps establish cooperative relationships that bring together community and neighborhood residents, organizations, local governments, higher educational institutions, community agencies, and private industry and business. The Center acts as a focal point to provide education and technical assistance; coordinate and disseminate resource information; provide a forum to identify mutual needs and issues of the cooperating partners; discuss and resolve problems and assist communities and neighborhoods in their organizing efforts. These activities and services are provided, upon request, to communities and neighborhood organizations statewide. 

In our setting, CCCD provides University of Colorado Denver students and faculty with the opportunity to extend classroom learning to real-world applications through projects requested by urban neighborhoods and rural communities across the state. The Center’s work offers a wide array of educational and research possibilities for students and faculty and serves as a contact point for linking and integrating the education, research and service aspects of the University’s overall mission.