The Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) is the primary social science policy research and teaching arm of the Johns Hopkins University. Located on the Homewood campus of the University, IPS straddles the two worlds of thought and action.



Our mission is to provide the information required to promote effective policy responses across a wide range of issues including welfare dependency, child support enforcement, supportive living for vulnerable populations, school-to-work transition, and the role and challenges facing the nonprofit sector. IPS' interdisciplinary staff includes nationally recognized scholars, as well as distinguished practitioners from the public arena. We believe that our combination of academic excellence, practical expertise, and breadth of focus is essential to developing better solutions to policy problems, which grow increasingly complex and multi-dimensional.

The Institute's director is assisted in achieving the strategic vision of IPS by a National Advisory Board of prominent private and public citizens with expertise and interest in public policy issues.

IPS accomplishes its mission through research, teaching, and technical assistance. It offers service to the community through graduate and undergraduate student internships, seminars and briefings, and volunteer activities. We are also a resource for the City of Baltimore. (Click on the Baltimore section of Research.)

Recent or on-going Institute work examines:

• Innovative welfare-to-work strategies;
• Long-term impacts of safety net programs on families and children;
• Strategies for re-engaging out-of-school youth;
• Intensive aftercare for high-risk juvenile parolees;
• Scope, structure, financing and role of the private, nonprofit sector;
• Federal housing policy for the elderly and persons with severe mental illness;
• Revitalization strategies and technology-based economic development for the City of Baltimore; and
• Value of imports in Maryland's economy.

• The Center for Civil Society Studies
• The Sar Levitan Center for Social Policy Studies
• International Society for Third Sector Research