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Program Summary:
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The Urban Strategies Council does
community-building support and advocacy work related to economic
development and land control issues.
It was founded in 1987 with significant
foundation support, and foundations continue to be a key source of its
funding. Some of its
services are available to any nonprofit wanting them; in other cases
organizations must apply for assistance.
The Council tends to work behind the scenes, with the
organizations it assists being most visible in community change efforts. It offers training in such areas as
redevelopment, provides technical assistance to individual organizations
and collaboratives, maintains web sites for groups, secures dollars from
funders for the purpose of regranting them to community groups, and more.
As one example of regranting, the Council secured dollars to set up village centers, then subgranted the funds to
sites that wanted to establish the centers.
In recent years the Council
has increased its work with coalitions and collaboratives. In some cases a coalition approaches
the Council requesting assistance, and in other cases a funder asks the
Council to work with a coalition.
For example the Council staffs and convenes a community benefits
coalition of base-building organizations that have constituent
memberships. The coalition works
within a neighborhood that has a community benefits agreement with a
developer, and helps it determine, in communication with the developer,
how to manage and use dollars within the neighborhood. In this effort the Council both
provides technical assistance and coordinates a community facilitation
process. The Council also is
working with a coalition of ministers to conduct a community assessment
related to violence and economic development. This effort involves research,
training, and strategic planning around violence prevention and economic
development.
The Council partners with a
variety of funders, and at times has used other groups to provide a
needed training, e.g. in participatory facilitation. The Council has not done a comprehensive
evaluation, but do look at elements of their work, such as policy change
or community benefits work supporting a coalition that is negotiating an
agreement.
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