ABSTRACT
In the mid-1980s, the University of Pittsburgh, as part of its bicentennial celebration, convened 120 faculty, administrators, policymakers, industrialists, philanthropists, and community leaders to explore how the University and community could work collaboratively to improve the quality of life in the Pittsburgh region in different domains. This chapter promotes interdisciplinary training and research as well as facilitates university-community collaborations that would contribute to the welfare of children, youth, and families in the Pittsburgh area. It presents a description of the current version of the Office of Child Development and its methods of promoting university-community collaborations. The concept and activities of the Office of Child Development have changed over the ten years of its existence, but the 'partnership' concept of mutual responsibility and benefit among collaborators has been an enduring theme. The chapter presents a few of the projects fostered by the Office in the domains of interdisciplinary education, interdisciplinary research, collaborative human-service demonstration programs, program evaluation, and policy studies.
