By Sasha Forbes There is a frustrating truth in the world of community development: new large-scale development, no matter how much it is designed to support the existing neighborhood, often displaces or alienates some longtime residents. Whether it’s a transit project, housing project or large-scale park project, the outcomes are typically the same. Assets in […]

You can tell a lot about a community by the state of its parks. No parks? That says something. Neglected or dangerous parks? A clue that residents are struggling to raise healthy families. We tend to think that the state of the neighborhood dictates the state of its parks. But what if the reverse were […]

By Stephanie Gidigbi The Systems Change Guide explores several key SPARCC concepts and approaches to advance systems change. It spotlights regional efforts and serves as a guide to actualize systems change from theory to reality. It also includes an appendix of tools & resources to assess and prioritize systems change activities. Research shows that place […]

Laura Choi, the Research Manager for Community Development at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, recently wrote a blog post reflecting on the National Interagency Community Reinvestment Conference that was held in Miami in March of 2018. In Choi’s post, she discusses the importance of one of the conference’s cross-cutting themes: inclusion and racial equity. […]

By: Mariia Zimmerman Workers, students, care givers, and older adults are among the many different types of community members who struggle to find safe, reliable, and affordable mobility options. Increased investment over the past two decades in public transit is helping to connect more people to economic opportunity. Transit helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and […]

Stephanie Gidigbi, the SPARCC Policy, Capacity, and Systems Change Director and Senior Adviser at NRDC, wrote a post outlining a series of recommendations to improve America’s infrastructure.  Gidigbi emphasizes that we need an infrastructure plan that prioritizes investments that are innovative, equitable, and climate resilient. Past government policies, including redlining, continue to have a negative […]

Last week marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, TN. We were moved by a piece authored by Odetta MacLeish-White, Managing Director at TransFormation Alliance and our SPARCC Atlanta partner, commemorating the life and work of Dr. King and connecting it to the work she, her organization, […]

Douglass Sims, the Director of Strategy and Finance for the Center for Market Innovation at the Natural Resources Defense Council, recently wrote a blogpost on EcoDistricts about the importance of shifting our thinking around infrastructure projects. The new vision he discusses, called High Road Infrastructure, prioritizes community needs when developing infrastructure projects so as not […]

In a chapter in the newest issue of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Community Development Investment Review, Nancy O. Andrews, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Low Income Investment Fund, discusses the importance of integrating justice more explicitly into the community development field. Ms. Andrews reflects on her more than 30 […]

Representatives from SPARCC’s three original funders – the Ford Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation – recently wrote a chapter in the newest issue of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Community Development Investment Review reflecting on the goals and early development of the initiative.  The chapter’s co-authors summarized their […]