Building a new urban practice.

Living Cities works with cross-sector leaders in cities to build a new type of urban practice aimed at dramatically improving the economic well-being of low-income people. We believe that these four core elements of our work are key to these ends:

Open-Sourcing Social Change.

We work at the intersections of information, people, story, and technology to accelerate the uptake of promising solutions to social problems.

Collective Impact.

We support ambitious data-driven, results-oriented cross-sector tables who work together differently to achieve large-scale results and enduring change.

Capital Innovation.

We blend public, private and philanthropic financial resources in new ways to better meet the needs of cities and their residents.

Public Sector Innovation.

We work with public sector leaders to foster more nimble, collaborative, and data-driven local governments.

Explore the topics we address 

Where We Work

See all of the cities where we work. This map also features cities participating in our Integration Initiative, including highlighting our other work in those places.

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What We’re Thinking

Blog Post Hafizah Omar & Julie Nelson on Mar 26, 2020

Practicing Trust and Vulnerability in Partnership: What We’ve Learned from Race… 

Blog Post Elizabeth Reynoso on Mar 24, 2020

Ideas and Resources for How Cities Can Attack the COVID-19 Crisis 

From Long Beach, CA, to Rochester, NY, we are hearing from local government colleagues about the how they are responding to COVID-19. Here’s what they’re telling us.

Resource on Mar 18, 2020

Closing the Gaps Webinar Series 

The reality of COVID-19’s scope and impact is just beginning to sink in and in many ways is still unknown. At Living Cities, we are doing our best to hold the complexities that come with racial equity work, particularly in a time of global pandemic.

Blog Post Nadia Owusu & Alyssa Smaldino on Mar 18, 2020

An Invitation to Center Race in Government Responses to COVID-19 

The reality of COVID-19’s scope and impact is just beginning to sink in and in many ways is still unknown. At Living Cities, we are doing our best to hold the complexities that come with racial equit…

Blog Post Demetric Duckett & Nadia Owusu on Mar 10, 2020

Turning the Mirror Onto Ourselves 

Our work with the Integration Initiative (TII) and more specifically, our relationships with the Initiative Directors (IDs) in Albuquerque, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, San Francisco, Baltimore and New Or…

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Safety and Justice Challenge 

Blog Post Shannon Jordy & Jeff Raderstrong on Mar 3, 2020

We Were There: Reckoning with Living Cities’ History on Race 

Our new interactive movement history timeline lets you interact with Living Cities' past, including the major political milestones and cultural touch points in our country's history, and envision a f…

Blog Post Demetric Duckett & Scot Spencer on Feb 26, 2020

Is Philanthropy Aligned on the Root Causes of Inequities? 
Explore the people who are creating change