Fredrick Blum Neighborhood Assistance Center (NAC)

Director:  Dr. Daniel Block

Program Administrator: Celia Francies

CERC Coordinator: Michael Siola

The Fredrick Blum Neighborhood Assistance Center (NAC) provides technical and research assistance to neighborhood based, community, and economic development organizations. Housed in the Department of Geography, Sociology, History, African American Studies, and Anthropology at Chicago State University and drawing heavily on the resources and skills of the department, the NAC endeavors to involve faculty and students from across the university. The NAC applies discipline specific skills to the solution of neighborhood problems and acts to increase the level of service to the community by the university.

The main goal of the NAC is to foster self-reliant community development. This is accomplished by:

• Assisting in the development of neighborhood planning projects in ways that enable neighborhood residents to develop their own strategies for neighborhood maintenance and revitalization.
• Performing land use and housing quality surveys, feasibility studies, market analyses, food and social service access analyses, grant writing assistance, and database construction.
• Mapping assistance and spatial analyses using the department's Geographic Information System (GIS) laboratory.
• Maintaining documents and data pertaining to land use, community health, housing, economic development, and community planning.

Students can become involved in Neighborhood Assistance Center (NAC) projects through internships, work study positions and funded research assistantships.

The Calumet Environmental Resource Center (CERC) is a unit of the Fredrick Blum Neighborhood Assistance Center (NAC) and is a repository for environmental information relating to the Calumet region in southeastern Chicago/Cook County and in northwestern Indiana. CERC resources are available to students, faculty, and members of the community.

The NAC is named after Fredrick Blum, emeritus professor of Geography, long-time supporter of community planning and neighborhood development, and originator of the idea for the NAC.

Fredrick Blum Neighborhood Assistance Center (NAC)

Chicago State University Williams Science Center - Room 321

9501 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive

Chicago, IL 60628-1598

Phone: (773) 995-3844

Fax: (773) 995-4482