Community-Based

The Community-Based Research Initiative (CBRI) blends research with community service and integrates classroom study with real-world experience, enabling students to engage with the community in unique ways.

Students have exceptional opportunities to work directly with Boston-area community groups to identify research projects that have practical value to neighborhoods, cities, and the region, such as assessing the impact of state policy at the local level.

Working in teams under faculty supervision in a four-credit practicum, CBRI students collaborate intensively with each other and their community partners to develop and implement a research plan. The students then co-author a report and present their findings to the community group.

The work is integral to participating students' education, providing them with an unrivalled, first-hand experience developing and implementing social science research projects that shed light on solutions to real-world problems.