Angela Glover Blackwell
Founder & CEO
Policylink

Living Cities demonstrates the tremendous power of an alliance of the nation’s leading foundations and financial institutions, joined to advance a game-changing agenda. We experienced this at PolicyLink in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Immediately after the storm, PolicyLink drafted “Ten Points to Guide Rebuilding in the Gulf Region,” laying out principles of equitable development. Living Cities, seasoned in community development work that emphasized housing and physical revitalization strategies, invested in PolicyLink because of our commitment to integrating people-focused and place-focused strategies, and to weaving together community revitalization, regional development, and equity.

The support provided us with far more than dollars, important as they were. The imprimatur of Living Cities bolstered our credibility both on the inside, as advisors to local and state officials, and on the outside, as conveners of resident groups and key nonprofit organizations. With an impressive list of muscular foundations and banks backing our efforts, doors opened from the governor’s office down. The language of equity and the needs of the most vulnerable residents came to inform recovery planning and priorities.

Philanthropists (and governments) have traditionally approached community development as a construction project, a job solely of remaking a place. Yet decades of failures and inspiring revitalization successes have taught us a critical lesson: authentic, effective community development requires the blending of strategies to improve place and empower people. With 20 years of experience and its recently launched Integration Initiative, Living Cities is well positioned to build upon the lessons of past community development efforts and nurture the strong alliances, the local capacity, and the grassroots leadership needed to achieve significant, enduring change.