Resources

PUBLICATIONS

Beyond Development

This report was commissioned by Nexus Community Partners to examine community engagement strategies—an emergent stream in an ongoing effort to address both the social and economic challenges facing impoverished and other marginalized communities.

Structural Racism and Community Building

describes the problem of structural racism and shows its manifestations across policy domains, including poverty, education, health, and criminal justice. It suggests implications for the community building field, including an increased emphasis on building civic capacity to challenge public policies and institutional practices that reproduce racial disparity.

Post Racialism or Targeted Universalism?

In this article, Professor john powell advocates for a more targeted approach to addressing the racial disparities that continue to plague our country. Universal policies, he argues, fail to effectively factor in the differential situatedness of racial groups in American society, and have the potential to exacerbate rather than ameliorate them. Instead he calls for more targeted policies as being better able to positively impact communities of color.

Tapping the Power of Social Networks: Understanding the Role of Social Networks in Strengthening Families and Transforming Communities

This report presents the base from which the Annie E. Casey Foundation has built its work on social networks. It compiles relevant definitions, key findings from the literature and their challenges, and Casey's point of view on the potential niche for strengthening positive social networks in the context of the Foundation's Making Connections initiative. This is the first in a series of five on social network approaches and practice.

Community Connections Index

The degree to which people are imbedded in their communities often escapes the attention of those who seek to discover why some neighborhoods are thriving while others are not. Improving quality of life is partially tied into how engaged people are in their community and how connected they feel to their community. This presentation lays out the framework of measuring the Community Connections Index of communities.

Cultural Development and City Neighborhoods

Cities around the world are building urban cultural life as a way to develop local economies and revitalize urban centers. But they have done less to recognize and systematically promote the cultural lives of urban neighborhoods and their residents. This brief examines four characteristics of city cultural policy that affect cultural development and cultural life in neighborhoods.

Intersections

THE VITALITY of a neighborhood street—measured by the number of people who use it; the number of different ways it is used; and the general feeling of variety and convenience it offers the users—is one of the surest indicators of neighborhood health. For community development organizers and planners, and for their constituents, a successful street may be as important as a successful building rehabilitation or economic development project. In fact, it may be a critical part of such projects. This report commissioned by Nexus (formerly PLCP) is a case study on the reconstruction of Lake Street.

Advancing the Economic Power of Low-Income Households: Program Planning Lessons from the Field

The findings in this paper, commissioned by Nexus (formerly PLCP) are being used to develop and operate two Centers for Working Families (CWF), adapting a model developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. These convenient neighborhood centers will provide low-income families with a variety of financial, employment, and related services in a trusted setting.

Mind the Gap

The Itasca Project includes 40-plus business and community leaders, including the CEOs of major Minnesota companies, the Governor, the Mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and the President of the University of Minnesota. The Itasca Project identifies issues with high economic and quality of life impact for the region. The Itasca Project identified socioeconomic disparities as a critical challenge to the region’s economic success. The demographic/economic analysis commissioned by Nexus (formerly PLCP), The McKnight Foundation and Living Cities and conducted by The Brookings Institutions led to this becoming a high priority for The Itasca Project.

WEBSITES

PolicyLink

Headed by Angela Glover-Blackwell this nonprofit research institute is widely quoted on a range of topics related to urban anti-poverty and related policy issues, including equitable and sustainable development strategies.

The Asset Based Community Development Initiative

The Asset-Based Community Development Institute (ABCD) is at the center of a large and growing movement that considers local assets as the primary building blocks of sustainable community development. Building on the skills of local residents, the power of local associations, and the supportive functions of local institutions, asset-based community development draws upon existing community strengths to build stronger, more sustainable communities for the future.