| The Pratt Institute's Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) efforts focus on the communities of Melrose, Hunts Point, and Soundview in the South Bronx in New York City. They are primarily minority communities with large concentrations of low-income households¾in some areas poverty rates and unemployment rates are triple the citywide figures. In fact, the congressional district that includes Hunts Point and Soundview is the poorest in the nation. Over the last 30 years, these communities have been devastated by the loss of thousands of industrial jobs and the proliferation of extensive brownfield sites.
Under this COPC grant, the Pratt Institute is working with three community-based organizations--Nos Quedamos/We Stay, The Point Community Development Corporation, and Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice--to plan and begin implementation of a multifaceted revitalization strategy for this area of the South Bronx. Pratt provides technical assistance and training to support its community partners in this comprehensive planning and redevelopment effort. The revitalization strategy focuses on transportation and infrastructure initiatives; reclamation of waterfront and brownfield sites; and housing, open space, and economic development projects.
Pratt is helping with planning, architectural, and financial packaging to expand and consolidate comprehensive planning efforts already underway. Pratt is conducting planning and design processes that engage area residents, businesses, and others, as well as defining strategies that will benefit all stakeholders.
Pratt's mission is to educate practicing professionals in the applied arts and sciences, including architecture, urban design and city planning. In carrying out this project, it is relying on its graduate center for planning and the environment, its planning and architectural collaborative, and its center for community and environmental development.
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