Defining a Community Change Agenda for the Future: Applying Lessons from Recent History Tom Dewar and Anne Kubisch Roundtable on Community Change The Aspen Institute November 3, 2009

The Aspen Roundtable: Voices from the Field Combination of program documents, evaluations, and interviews/focus groups Voices 1 (1997): Description of comprehensiveness, community building, process-product tension Voices 2 (2002): Emphasis on capacity building and connections

Place-Based Efforts Are Here for the Foreseeable Future Voices from the Field III: Refers to 40 community change efforts over 20 years $1 billion in philanthropic investment over the last two decades More than $10 billion in public sector investment Future: Stimulus package, Neighborhood Stabilization Program, Choice Neighborhoods, Promise Neighborhoods, transit funding, green jobs

Goals Individual/ Family Change Neighbor- hood Change Systems Change Principles Community Building Comprehen- siveness Operational Strategies Governance Funding Staffing Technical Assistance Evaluation Programs Social Support Education/ Training Economic Development Physical Revitalization Quality-of-Life Community Change Efforts Vary: The general model

How we will present the findings 1. Three levels: Individual level Community level: Includes both physical/economic change and community capacity building Policy and system level 2. General findings 3. Some keys to success 4. Unresolved problems, challenges for the future

Individual-Level Outcomes: People-oriented strategies Put into place “best practices” Outcomes seen for the individuals who received the services Many focused on EITC uptake (low-hanging fruit)

Community-Level Outcomes: Type I, Physical/economic-oriented strategies Major physical revitalization causes real change in communities Large and/or mission-driven CDCs have effectively balanced physical with other strategies; small CDCs can’t seem to get to scale Developers (non-profit and for-profit) are efficient housing producers and have a growing track record re: social, environmental and civic community well-being

Community-Level Outcomes: Type II, Increased community capacity New leadership emerged New connections were made across community residents Many organizations’ capacities were built Community “civic” capacity increased: organized, planful, stronger voice city-wide

Data: collect, analyze and consider implications of data about the community Inclusive community visioning and planning process: goals to work toward, ability to take advantage of opportunities, aim for alignment Locally-based broker/mediator: convener, organizer, network builder, policy advocate, focus on alignment Community-Level Outcomes: Common strategies to build community capacity

Policy and Systems Change Many attracted and leveraged new funding Partnerships between communities and powerful allies triggered system responsiveness Parallel policy and advocacy track to support community agendas

Keys to success: Some big themes Clarity about goals, definition of success and theory of change Intentionality Proportionality Valuing community capacity building Brokering and alignment

Keys to success: Effective roles of foundations Use all philanthropic “capitals:” Financial: grants and investments Technical: access to national research and practices Civic: convening, helping to set the agenda, taking on policy and systems change Moral: embracing equity and empowerment Reputational: ability to take risks Intellectual: learning and creating a learning culture Not all foundations should do CCI-type work The role of national foundations should be revisited: Local work? Field-building? Policy?

Individual Level: Unresolved problems and challenges for the future How to attain population-level change through human investment strategies? What is the added-value of delivering good services through a community change effort? What do we mean by “synergy”? Is co- location good enough? What do we mean by “overcoming funding silos”? What does it look like in practice?

Community Level (Physical/economic): Unresolved problems and challenges for the future Can community efforts succeed in promoting economic development (beyond commercial development)? Who, aside from private developers, should do physical development? How to do development without displacement? Can mixed income work, and be stable?

Community Level (Capacity): Unresolved problems and challenges for the future How to take advantage of new forms of organizing that is reaching new and different audiences? Community capacity-building requires staff and funding? Who will pay? How to strengthen cross-sector alignment (public, private and community) on behalf of the community? How to improve the evidence that increased community capacity results in improved “hard” outcomes?

Policy Level: Unresolved problems and challenges for the future What does community level work have to do with system change? How to maximize the community-system change link? How will the current economic crisis affect all of this work? Racial segregation is increasing: how to tackle the race/place/poverty knot?

Thank you