What Anchor Institutions Can Do by Working Together
Anchor institutions are beginning to realize that they face similar challenges and, by joining forces, can accomplish goals that once seemed out of reach.
Forging a Transformative Vision
Building economic power through community ownership is the antidote to the systemic failures of our current system.
“Let’s Refuel America”
According to a report in The New York Times Monday, auto sales are down by more than a million compared to 2007’s 16.2 million...
Catalysts Turned Stalemates
All too often in cities around the country, a once-clear vision of a “catalytic development project” is easily blurred...
How Much Outside Help Do Worker Co-ops Need to Get to Scale?
Though they end up as owners and decision-makers, workers in low-income communities often don't start off doing all the work...
Why Your Community Should Kick the Subsidy Habit
Corporate incentives won't help communities thrive, even distressed ones. But nurturing local businesses will save municipalities money and promote the growth of income, wealth, and jobs.
Reflecting and Planning Using a Community Wealth Building Lens
Over an organization’s 25 years in existence, how do staff and volunteers measure impact and build off of lessons learned to guide their next steps forward?
Is Success Making CDFIs Too Risk-Averse?
Shelterforce's Miriam Axel-Lute in conversation with Ed Gorman of NCRC on whether community development financial institutions (CDFIs) are taking enough risk, and therefore, falling short of their mission.
Sprawl vs. Unions
The three very different stories of the building trades in Atlanta, Denver, and Portland, Ore., show just how much urban development patterns affect workers.
Will Financial Crisis Lead to Hard Times for Nonprofits?
With congressional leaders reaching an agreement Thursday afternoon on the president’s proposal to pump $700 billion into the country’s financial system, it’s not yet...
Is Your Town a Parasite?
What would you do if someone told you your town, the place you'd grown up in and where you had...
Anchoring “The Community” to the Community Building Movement
Community building has many definitions all of which capture an integrated approach to addressing poverty. For me, community...
Making a Success of Local Hire
Local hire policies are among the strongest strategies for bringing good job opportunities to disadvantaged communities, but adding more provisions to specifically target those with the most barriers to employment can make local hiring practices even more effective.
CRA “Reform” Under Trump Threatens Communities of Color and the 99 Percent
Banks enjoy consumer and taxpayer-funded privileges, such as deposit insurance, and not too long ago, subsidized trillion-dollar bailouts. It’s not too much to insist that they invest a fair share of those dollars back into all of our communities.
An Island Where There Is a Standard
Like so many of its counterparts across the country, Brick’s is more than just a barbershop in Albany, N.Y. It’s a haven in a troubled neighborhood.
Placemaking for, and by, Whom?
Place-Making in Legacy Cities: Opportunities and Good Practices, prepared by New Solution Group LLC in partnership with Center for Community Progress, December 2013.
Neighborhood Schools that Work for Kids, Communities, and the Environment
Here are 11 key principles for measuring how well schools and school policies fit in with their communities.
Here’s How CDCs can Overcome the People-Based, Place-Based Gap
“Self interest generalized is community interest” — Kenneth Jones, community organizer
Throughout my experience in leading NeighborWorks America's Superstorm Sandy response, two critical aspects have...
Control of Farmland, City Style
I have thought a lot lately about the issue of land ownership for farmers, and the barriers they face to buying land so they can plan for growing their business and serving more food consumers. This issue really matters on the edges of metropolitan areas, where farmers can find lucrative markets for their products and […]
Who Will Benefit From Opportunity Zones? It’s Still Unclear
Who will benefit most from these investments remains the biggest question.