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The Center for the Study of Urban Poverty was established in 1989 by Professor Melvin Oliver and Professor Jim Johnson. During its thirteen years of existence, the Center has successfully brought in grant and research monies to conduct investigations, train graduate and undergraduate students and support senior and junior faculty. Its focus on the various dimensions of urban poverty, such as income and status disparities, employment and occupational patterns has led to a number of publications and reports.
Driving basic research to new levels of applied, policy formulations, CSUP has a history of cultivating partnerships with local agencies and organizations and with their feedback and cooperation conducted investigations to effect policy and change. The dissemination of these findings to local, state, and federal policymakers has deepened and widened the network among researchers, practitioners and policymakers to further cement cooperation and coordination among the various sectors devoted to public service and life. The combination of university expertise and resources and government and foundation support and linkages has enabled the CSUP program to recruit and train a new cadre of poverty researchers and social service providers.
Over the past five years and particularly since the appointment of Professor Abel Valenzuela, Jr. as Director and Professor Michael Stoll as Associate Director in July of 2001, the research agenda of CSUP has increasingly focused on issues related to race beyond the black/white prism (i.e., looking at Latinos and Asians), the working or marginal poor, and local economic development strategies. Other changes revolve around a further refinement of research on Los Angeles, the use of a more sophisticated web site and the release of poverty report cards.
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