About the Blum Irvine Center

The Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation was launched at UC Irvine during UCI’s 50th year, as part of a larger consortium of Blum Centers (beginning with the Blum Center for Developing Economies at UC Berkeley, established in 2006), across the University of California campuses. The Blum Centers operate on the idea that a world-class university must be a force for tackling the world’s most daunting challenge – poverty.

The Center’s mission is to enable a new generation of students and researchers to ask and address critical questions about economic development that are key prerequisites to devising effective and innovative approaches to alleviating contemporary poverty both locally, in Orange County, and abroad.

The Center currently has three main initiatives:

• Education:
  UCI’s Blum Center is developing innovative courses to be housed in Social Ecology and embedded within International Studies and the Civic and Community Engagement Minor introduce students to the complex issue of poverty in the 21st century. The Center is also involved in establishing field sites to provide students with opportunities to make meaningful contributions to alleviating poverty at home and abroad. Key elements of the curriculum will be made available to everyone online.
• Research:
  The Center will support pioneering, interdisciplinary research to develop human-centered, contextually sensitive and sustainable solutions to poverty that draw upon the campus’ extensive expertise in areas such as financial inclusion, information technology, water management, energy efficiency and climate change.
• Engagement:
  The Center will cultivate long-term partnerships in Southern California and at locations around the world so that the vast stock of ingenuity and concern available on our campus can be made available to those in need on terms that are ethical, enduring and effective. Throughout each year, the Blum Center will host distinguished speakers and events ranging from workshops and conferences to art exhibitions and creative performances.

For more information about the Blum Center, download an informational flyer here.