Community Development & District Engagement
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Tech Entrepreneurs Can Play an Important Role in Financial Inclusion
The terms “tech entrepreneur” and “low-income” typically don’t go together, but an innovative collaboration of philanthropists and investors is trying to change that.
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Successfully Revitalize Communities through a Cross-Sector Approach
Video: Elizabeth Kneebone and David Erickson discuss how community revitalization is possible in suburban communities by adopting a cross-sector approach that engages education, health, transportation, job training, and other sectors.
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Community Development’s Role in Disease Prevention
How do you prevent disease caused or triggered by social and environmental factors? By meeting it head on in the community.
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For-Profit Colleges and the Student Debt Crisis
Student debt is a growing issue, particularly as it relates to for-profit colleges and low- and moderate-income students. In this post, Laura Choi highlights striking statistics on the student loan debt burdening our nation’s LMI students.
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What Happens in Vegas… Lessons on Cross-Sector Community Development
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Sin City’s slogan may be appropriate for thrill-seeking visitors, but the people who live here have an important story that needs to be told. Beyond the spectacle and extravagance of the Strip, Nevada struggles with the nation’s highest unemployment rate, one of the lowest high school graduation rates, the lowest share of young children enrolled in early childhood education, and the highest violent crime rate.
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Health and Wealth Inequities across Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Stations
For many people living in the Bay Area, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system is an integral part of everyday life (just ask anyone affected by the recent BART strike). A casual ride on any BART line reveals the economic disparity that exists between an affluent suburb, such as Pleasanton or Fremont, and the urban core of Downtown Oakland, but a little data can reveal how much deeper this disparity goes. Consider this: a short ride between BART stations can mean an 11-year difference in life expectancy.
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An Uneven Housing Recovery: Implications for Community Development
After years of gloomy housing reports, we’ve been seeing some promising signs of a national housing market recovery. However, these encouraging indicators mask the realities of what’s happening on the ground in low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities that were disproportionately affected by the housing crisis. Complicating matters is the unprecedented role of investors in the housing recovery and the changing nature of local housing markets.
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Beyond the Hype: The Promise and Pitfalls of Pay for Success
Interest in Pay for Success (PFS) financing tools, like the social impact bond, has been growing steadily since 2010. Many governments are exploring PFS solutions, including the State of California, which recently convened an informational legislative hearing to discuss the idea.
In his testimony to the Select Committee on Procurement and the Business, Professions & Economic Development Committee, Ian Galloway highlights four potential benefits and pitfalls, based on the most recent issue of the Community Development Investment Review, which explored PFS in depth.
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New Role for Health Care Providers: “Hot-Spotting” Unhealthy Communities?
In his now legendary approach to urban medicine, physician and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grantee Jeffrey Brenner, MD, pioneered the technique of hot spotting—making block-by-block maps of Camden, N.J., examining residents’ hospital costs and identifying the handful of patients who cycled in and out of those institutions and racked up stratospheric medical bills.
What if America’s hospitals and health systems used similar techniques to identify the nation’s poorest and least healthy communities—and then teamed up with local community development organizations to set them on a path to better health?