The Community Development and Planning program provides current and future community development practitioners, activists, and scholars with a strong foundation - based on theory, skill development, and practice - to take on the challenges of urban revitalization in the United States. Our program links theory to practice through insightful participation of practitioners in seminars, high quality internships, and studio and practicum courses that allow students to learn directly from residents and community-based organizations about their resources, priorities, and strategies. Students in the Community Development and Planning Program learn alternative ways of thinking and transforming communities to achieve greater equity and social justice.

The CDP Program offers core courses and hands-on skill development in critical areas such as: community development and planning theory, planning techniques, community organizing, community development finance, grant writing, land use, decision-making and negotiation, non-profit management, youth and community development, geographic information systems, and research and project evaluation methods. CDP students also benefit from a unique interdisciplinary approach to community development that integrates the perspectives and ideas of the other departmental programs: Environmental Science and Policy, Geographic Information Science for Development and Environment, and International Development and Social Change.

Students enrolled and planning to enroll in the CDP program are able to declare a concentration in Enterprise Management based on a partnership with Clark University's Graduate School of Management (GSOM). Beginning in Fall 2009, IDCE and GSOM are piloting an CDP/GSOM Dual Degree Program. Students in the dual degree program will earn two degrees at the end of three years of graduate school - a MA in CDP and a MBA from GSOM.