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GETTING IT DONE
AN OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN
FROM EACH OTHER
This meeting was about the “how” of
community development.
The “why” was never an issue among
the neighborhood leaders and
development professionals, foundation
executives and corporate funders who
gathered March 26-27, 2008 at the
UIC Forum of the University of Illinois
at Chicago.
They know all too well the stakes have
never been higher for America’s urban
neighborhoods. There is a new urgency,
what with “left behind” public schools
and failed federal immigration policies,
a faltering national economy and, most
immediately, an epidemic of home
foreclosures.
And so they came, 900 strong, from
dozens of Chicago neighborhoods and
more than 50 cities across the nation,
seeking fresh approaches to familiar yet
vexing problems. They came, in
particular, to learn about the new tools
being developed in the 16 Chicago
neighborhoods of the New Communities
Program (NCP). Now in its sixth year,
NCP is coordinated by the Chicago
office of the Local Initiatives Support
Corporation (LISC) and by non-profit
“lead agencies” in each neighborhood.
Principal funding is by The John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation with
supplemental investments by more than
20 other sources.
What’s so new about NCP
For one thing, its core approach of
neighborhood-led, comprehensive
community development has never
been attempted on so large a scale,
across so many diverse neighborhoods,
with so deep a variety of governmental,
philanthropic and political support.
“Grassroots” and “comprehensive” are
not new ideas in the community
development lexicon (a similar approach
helped redevelop New York’s South
Bronx in the 1980s), but the
empowerment of local groups to work
simultaneously on all aspects of
neighborhood health — from schools to
shopping, from cultural arts to public
safety — is only now being expansively
tested and evaluated for potential use
across urban America.
Folks came also to contribute their own
insights about what works and what
doesn’t in places such as Duluth and
San Diego, Miami and Providence.
Because while every city has its own
context, the how-tos of community
renewal — planning, leadership,
communications, measurement — are
universal. And fascinating, too, judging
by the high energy level sustained
across 17 hours of general sessions,
workshops, roundtable discussions, bus
tours … even “nightlife” forays to
special neighborhood places.
What follows are highlights and
sidelights from “Getting It Done.”
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