Issue #144, November/December 2005

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The Hyams Foundation’s report, Joining Forces: Community Organizations and Labor Unions Form New Collaborations, explores the challenges that community groups and unions face as they seek to build mutually supportive relationships that advance the interests of low-income and working class individuals. The report offers interesting lessons that funders, community organizations and unions can use when considering similar partnerships. Contact Henry Allen, 617-426-5600, X309 or . www.hyamsfoundation.org

A report by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation finds that families served by supportive housing are moving toward self-sufficiency. Evaluation of the Sound Families Initiative: A Closer Look at Homeless Families’ Lives During and After Supportive Transitional Housing reports that 86 percent of families in the Sound Families Initiative program secured permanent housing after completing the transitional program and nearly half increased their income. www.gatesfoundation.org/PacificNorthwest/Evaluations/SFEvaluation.htm

Decades of poor planning choices have concentrated public housing at the core of cities around the United States, leaving tenants unable to access jobs that have moved to the suburbs and deepening the divide between haves and have-nots, a new study from the Brookings Institution finds. Katrina’s Window: Confronting Concentrated Poverty Across America focuses on areas in which 40 percent of residents live below the poverty line in disadvantaged neighborhoods where crime and a lack of decent housing, stable job opportunities and supportive schools have eroded the quality of life. The report found that Fresno, California, has the highest concentration of residents living in extremely poor communities, with New Orleans placing second. www.brookings.edu/metro/publications.htm

According to a recent report from The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, the relatively strong Minneapolis-St. Paul region faces race, class and place disparities that could impede economic growth. Among the many race disparities is a significant income gap between blacks and whites, with black household income among the lowest in the nation in a region where household income overall is among the highest. Class disparities include a growing gap between what high-earners and low-earners make. Place disparities include poverty in the regional core and relative wealth in the outer suburbs. To close these gaps, the authors recommend updating the basics, such as education and health care; helping minority groups increase income and wealth; and implementing problem solving on a regional basis. www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20051027_mindthegap.pdf

Enterprise’s MoneyNet™ contains information on public and private funding resources. With more than 1,000 funders, this database helps you better locate donors interested in community development. The Fundraising Fundamentals section can help you develop and implement a fundraising strategy. Through a partnership with the Social Enterprise Alliance, hundreds of social enterprise funders have been added to MoneyNet. http://enterprisefoundation.org/resources/Funding/moneynet/index.asp

AWARDS
New Jersey Future is now accepting nominations for the 2006 Smart Growth Awards. These awards honor town officials, developers, contractors, architects and corporations in New Jersey who have the courage to resist status quo growth patterns and have instead adopted smart growth values and design principles. Deadline: January 6. www.njfuture.org. (Select Events.)

The James Irvine Foundation is beginning its inaugural year for the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards. The award will recognize individual leaders who are making a demonstrable difference to California’s future. The leaders may work within any sector and within any field, such as education, health, the arts, housing, economic development or the environment. Recipients will receive $125,000 of flexible support for their work. Deadline: January 20. Contact Sarah Ihn, 415-356-9927, . www.irvine.org/grants_program/cp/leadership/leadership.shtml

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is funding projects that help low-income people become economically self-sufficient by teaching participants about economic and consumer issues and Individual Development Accounts. Funds will be granted through the Assets for Independence Demonstration Program. Deadline: March 15. Contact James Gatz, 202-401-4626 or .

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