Building Neighborhood Capacity Program Releases Formative Assessment Report with Lessons Learned from the Field

The Building Neighborhood Capacity Program (BNCP) seeks to catalyze community-driven change in neighborhoods that have historically faced barriers to revitalization. A key program of the federal Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative, BNCP was launched in 2012 to provide resources and targeted technical assistance to eight neighborhoods in four cities – Flint, MI; Fresno, CA; Memphis, TN; and Milwaukee, WI.

BNCP focuses on building community capacity: the knowledge, skills, relationships, processes and resources that neighborhood residents, local organizations and city-level partners need to work together to achieve better results. BNCP is funded by the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development and Justice and supported by technical assistance from the Center for the Study of Social Policy.

BNCP’s Federal Management Team and the Center for the Study of Social Policy are excited to release the Formative Assessment report, showcasing findings to contribute to the field’s knowledge about effective strategies for building neighborhood capacity. Written by Prudence Brown and Leila Fiester, the report covers BNCP’s original timeline from January 2012 to April 2014, as well as its six-month extension to October 2014.

Since that time, BNCP has been expanded, providing each city with two years of additional support to expand to a third neighborhood and develop a city-wide strategy to sustain revitalization efforts. The findings from the Formative Assessment are being used to inform and strengthen BNCP’s ongoing work in the initial eight neighborhoods, as well as the BNCP expansion process.

Check out the Formative Assessment on the Building Neighborhood Capacity Resource Center!

Memphis Community Member Creates Phone App to Help Fight Blight

Cities and neighborhoods experiencing blight are often facing a number of challenges, including poverty, job loss, financial instability and high rates of crime. In efforts to revitalize their neighborhood, many residents and stakeholders focus on trying to prevent foreclosures, advocating for improved social services and implementing community clean ups, among other activities. Yet, these efforts can be challenging as abandoned properties are often difficult to track.

The Heights neighborhood in Memphis, TN has been part of the Building Neighborhood Capacity Program since 2012. Comprised of residents, organizations and businesses in the Nutbush, Mitchell, Highland and Brinkley Heights neighborhoods, the Heights Coalition formed to mobilize residents and partners to work together to improve results in their community. As coalition members discussed their priorities, residents of the Heights neighborhood quickly identified blight as a major problem they wanted to address.

In response, Heights Coalition member Peter Van Wylen developed the Memphis Parcel Survey, a cell phone app that collects data on problem properties. The app allows users to identify the location of problem properties using a map feature; take a photo of the blighted area and abandoned units; indicate current conditions, with detailed options such as vacant property with papers covering windows and drug or gang activity; and take notes. The data collected is publicly available, making it possible to hold private and public property owners accountable.

The Heights Coalition members used the app to survey properties in the Shelby County Land Bank’s inventory. They reported twenty-five properties in need of revitalization. Two weeks later, the Coalition surveyed the properties again and reported sixteen properties had been addressed.

The Memphis Parcel Survey is an example of an innovative data tool developed by the community and for the community. The survey empowers neighborhood residents and stakeholders to generate real-time information about local conditions and provides an important platform to advocate for timely responses.

See the Heights community September newsletter for updates and ideas on community-based actions toward positive community change. To learn more about the power of local data to catalyze action, check out the “useable data” tools on the BNCP Resource Center.

Strengthening Communities with Neighborhood Data

Neighborhood data expands the ability of communities to make transformational changes in communities. While communities have been collecting data for decades, local government began automating these records in the 1990’s, enabling agencies to track data over time.

Urban Institute released a book, “Strengthening Communities with Neighborhood Data,” that documents how government and nonprofit institutions have used information about neighborhood conditions to change the way we think about community and local governance in America. Map manipulation through Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology has allowed cities to deepen their knowledge about communities. As cities share data cities across agencies, cities will be able to tell a more comprehensive story, past to present, around the interplay of different social factors and resources in communities.

The book outlines several examples of cities that have used data to affect larger change. Cleveland is an example of a city ahead of its time in launching an open data system in the 1980’s. They have been able to rely on institutions that could work flexibly and collaboratively with a variety of government agencies. Realizing the focus in neighborhoods was not adequate, they centered on the property level, creating a parcel level data platform to allow all groups to track properties. Austin collected data on the body mass index (BMI) of a population and mapped the inequities in the quality and proximity of grocery stores, health clinics, recreation centers, and other services for the purpose of connecting population with quality resources. Portland developed a regional equity analysis to inform smart growth policies in the region. The city framed access to green space as an equity issue. Chicago used GIS to map publicly available data on predatory lending. The data map resulted in a policy agenda that effectively addressed predatory lending in Chicago. These examples demonstrate how layering multiple data together provides a new lens for analysis to address the various factors necessary to improve a community.

While cities can call upon major institutions to collect data, it is important to engage the community to collect data in their neighborhoods. This approach involves training individuals to build community trust and develop community engagement and political skills. Structurally, this approach also ensures that communities build a community knowledge capacity to track data from year to year even when local governance changes.

In order to sustain data collection and analysis effort, cities have been able to operate with local funding and use government funding to leverage support. The data collection field is currently surveying the funding base to project future needs.

As data continues to be a critical source of information to guide community change action, Urban Institute and others in the field are developing tools and approaches for neighborhoods to track and use data. National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) is a collaboration of the Urban Institute and local partners in 35 cities to further the development and use of neighborhood-level information systems for community building and local decision-making. To find out if you are a neighborhood partner,visit the website.

Upcoming Webinar: Empowering Low-Income Families through Financial Literacy and Asset-Building

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has partnered with the U.S. Department of Treasury, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to host a webinar about financially empowering low-income families. The webinar will showcase a number of free online resources that you can use to assist the low-income families that you serve to improve their financial futures.
 

Presenters will include:

·    Louisa M. Quittman, Director of Financial Education at the Office of Consumer Policy, U.S. Department of the Treasury

·    Luke W. Reynolds, Chief of Outreach and Program Development, Division of Depositor and Consumer Protection, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

·    Desmond F. Brown, Program Specialist, Financial Empowerment, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

·    Gretchen Lehman, Program Manager, Assets for Independence, Office of Community Services, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

The webinar will take place on Thursday, November 13^th at 1:30 PM EST.  You can attend the presentation by clicking here shortly before the webinar.  (Note: this link will not be available until 15 minutes prior to this webcast)

The presentation will also be archived and will be available in HUD’s Webcast Archives.

Living Cities Improves Usability of Resources

Living Cities works with twenty two of the largest foundations and financial institutions as well as cross-sector leaders in cities "to develop and scale new approaches to dramatically improve the economic well-being of low-income people" through investments, research, networks, and convenings. The organization launched new website upgrades, including a search bar that allows users to easily target their search and access content from the website.

As a resource that aims to create open source space to leverage knowledge sharing for social change, the website provides real-time articles, reports, videos and toolkits from others working on similar issues. New features allow users to shape the conversation and the usage of terms. A user can click on a term framed in an orange ‘definition box’ within the article to clearly define or add context to the terms Living Cities uses to write and talk about their work, allowing for an inclusive community approach to ongoing dialogue. Issues range from concrete to more theoretical topics, from lessons for helping formerly incarcerated Americans access quality jobs to reimagining the civic infrastructure that brings different sectors together to address complex social problems. The variety of resources serve to expand collaboration among organizations working at different levels and areas of social change.

To learn more, visit LivingCities.Org

Gender Identity Support to Strengthen Communities

Building strong communities requires understanding and supporting individuals and their different identities, including gender identify. Gender, defined by Gender Spectrum as “the range of characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between, masculinity and femininity, is one of the most fundamental aspects of self-expression and impacts everybody."

Throughout its work with communities and public systems, the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) is committed to addressing inequities and securing the well-being of children and families. CSSP’s get R.E.A.L. initiative, in particular, is dedicated to improving the healthy sexual and identity development for all children and youth in the child welfare system. Recognizing that youth in the child welfare system often face poor outcomes compared to their peers, get R.E.A.L. provides resources and works to create lasting policy and practice change within the nation’s child welfare system to benefit LGBTQ youth.

For institutions and families seeking an additional resource, Gender Spectrum provides education, training and support to help create a gender sensitive and inclusive environment for children of all ages. Gender Spectrum helps communities understand different identities by issuing guidance and training on topics including: parenting and family, teens, education, medical, mental health, legal, social services and faith. Gender Spectrum also offers professional trainings for social service providers, schools and other agencies including:

• Development of gender identity in young children and adolescents
• Differentiation between gender identity and personal preferences
• Identifying and distinguishing markers of the Gender-expansive or transgender child and the lesbian or gay child
• The role of gender within the family/ individual caregiver system and offer a new lens through which to view gender development
• Cultural competence for gender diversity are offered as a way of identifying unique issues for the families of today
• Developmental stages of acceptance for a family and individual caregiver and how to be most supportive in moving towards research based effective upbringing of children and youth
• The impact of gender diversity on other aspects of development
• Social and physical transitions and how to determine whether a child is ready for these steps

Want to learn more about Gender Spectrum? Be sure to check out their website.

Access Training and Resources for Financing Your Community Change Work

Financing can be one of the most challenging and complicated elements of community change work. When considering financing options, it is important to incorporate a robust variety of funding streams as well as use funds that exist as leverage to stretch funding and achieve more impactful results. Building the capacity to understand one’s own costs of achieving community change, identifying funds that are already available, and then identifying potential other funding streams and leveraging or partnership opportunities is the key in creating a financing system that can be both successful and long-term.

But often, it’s difficult to even know how to access the funding sources out there. Creating a financing plan to support a community change project or entire nonprofit organization requires in-depth of skills and knowledge around how to craft grant proposals, build and sustain an effective board, and how to craft a budget.

Luckily, Grant Space^SM, a service provided by The Foundation Center, offers a number of resources that can assist nonprofit organizations in securing funding and establishing strong boards and organizational structure. The service offers many free webinars as well as in-person training sessions in New York, Atlanta, Washington DC, Cleveland and San Francisco on fundamental topics that nonprofit organizations need to continue and grow their work. The most popular webinars or courses they offer are:

•          Proposal Writing
•          Proposal Budgeting Basics
•          Grant Seeking Basics
•          Before You Seek a Grant
•          Finding Foundation Support for Your Organization

Check out their training calendar for the opportunity to attend these or any of the many classes they offer. Can’t make it to any of these scheduled events? You can also browse through past recordings of their webinars, attend live discussions with funders, and listen to their podcasts featuring experts in the field of non-profit development.

Want more specific tools related to financing community change work? Be sure to visit the financing section of the tools and templates in our online Building Neighborhood Capacity Resource Center. 

Dealing with Vacant Properties in Your Community

Have you ever walked by a boarded up, vacant property in your neighborhood and thought “I wish someone would fix that place up?” 

Neglected vacant properties are a problem in communities across the country. They are often piled up with trash and debris, boarded up, and can often be the locale for criminal activity.  But unfortunately, such vacant properties have surfaced in neighborhoods in unprecedented numbers since the advent of the recent foreclosure crisis. Whether it be a bank owned property, a property abandoned by its owners, or simply old industrial or commercial sites with seemingly no use, a vacant property can often become eyesore and a danger to the community in which it is located.  A vacant property can also end up costing cities thousands of dollars in lost property taxes as well as from responding to 311 calls from neighbors citing criminal activity and the need for fire abatement. Often, vacant properties are located in the same neighborhood, compounding the negative outcomes for the community. 

But vacant and blighted properties don’t have to be a seemingly endless burden on communities. In fact, cities and communities can use these vacant spaces as a resource for community change using the right creative approach. The Center for Community Progress is an organization devoted entirely to helping communities turn their “vacant places into vibrant spaces.”  One of the ways the organization does this is through its web-based Building American Cities Toolkit™. The toolkit is meant to be used by community actors who wants to address vacant cities in their community and has four main elements:

•             Dealing with problem property owners 

•             Building stronger neighborhoods

•             Reusing vacant properties; and 

•             Taking control of and managing problem properties

The toolkit offers ways to implement real strategies that have worked in the past; everything from cracking down on problem property owners to how to evaluate a vacant site for potential reuse. 

Does this sound like something you can use in your community?  Want more advice from experts and a chance to have your concerns answered and addressed?  You can also plan to attend their Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference in May 2015, which will be held in Detroit, MI, to learn more about how to combat blight and put vacant properties to good use in your neighborhood.  

School Justice Collaboration Program: Keeping Kids in School and Out of Court

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the Department of Education and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) have announced the School Justice Collaboration Program: Keeping Kids in School and Out of Court. Recognizing the need for coordination among schools, mental health providers and juvenile justice systems, the program aims to ensure that these systems have a shared framework for working with and supporting youth.

According to the announcement, there is a growing body of evidence highlighting community-based approaches to juvenile crime. Furthermore, evidence suggests that that using secure placements has a limited impact on reducing juvenile crime. OJJDP is committed to helping schools, mental health providers and juvenile justice systems to coordinate and strengthen their efforts to ensure that youth and families have access to support services that reduce juvenile crime and improve communities. The School Justice Collaboration Program will engage these stakeholders in improving school climates, responding early and appropriately to student mental health and behavioral needs and using positive, alternative responses - such as diversion programs - to avoid referring students to law enforcement and juvenile justice.

Applicants may apply to two categories:

1. Local School Justice Collaboration Program – This category will provide grants to local juvenile and family courts to address their coordination of services. Applicants are limited to local juvenile and family courts (including rural and tribal juvenile and family courts) that partner with a local education agency that has applied for the Department of Education’s School Climate Transformation Grants-LEA (SCTC) and the SAMHSA Now is the Time Project AWARE-LEA program. Applicants must also partner with local law enforcement as part of their collaborative effort. OJJDP anticipates selecting up to four grantees that will be awarded up to $600,000 each for a 36-month project period.
2. School Justice Collaboration Program National Training and Technical Assistance – OJJDP will select a training and technical assistance provider that will support the implementation of and sustainability of these initiatives, develop tools and resources to help stakeholders and work with a limited number of sites to support the implementation of school discipline approaches. Applicants are limited to nonprofit and for-profit organizations (including tribal nonprofit and for-profit organizations) and institutions of higher education (including tribal institutions of higher education). One cooperative agreement of as much as $2 million will be made for a 24-month period. 

Applications are due July 21, 2014.

For the complete grant announcement, click here.

“311 for Cities” Launched to Help Local Officials Face their Biggest Challenges

Have you ever dialed “311” to request assistance from your city?  Well, now your city may have a chance to call “311” for professional help with the issues it is facing as well.

On May 22, 2014, the Obama Administration announced the launch of the National Resource Network, a resource designed to serve as a "311 for Cities." The National Resource Network is a key component of the Obama Administration’s Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) initiative and is funded with $10 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). It will leverage the expertise, partnerships, and resources of the public and private sectors to help cities come up with solutions to their most pressing challenges. The National Resource Network provides three major types of services:

• Support for Implementing Solutions:  This service is a public-private partnership of experts who will work with cities on the ground to implement initiatives and projects that will foster economic development. The Network will also provide opportunities for cities to apply for direct assistance later this year, so be sure to sign up for updates from the Network to apply for this support.

• Access to Peer Networks and New Ideas: The Network will facilitate connections between local leaders and their peers as well as with experts in the sector solving similar problems in cities across the country. 

• On-Line, On-Demand Access to Expertise:  This part of the Network's service provides an online library of tools and technical assistance for local leaders, as well as their signature “311” resource for public agency staff working on economic and community development issues.

Want to know what "311 for cities" assistance from the National Resource Network actually looks like? Their website includes an example question from a city as well as the subsequent expert answer.

The pilot version of this resource is currently available to 50 cities and will expand to serve many more. To see if your city is eligible for assistance from the “311 for cities” tool, click here.