"New Approaches to Comprehensive Neighborhood Change: Replicating and Adapting LISC's Building Sustainable Communities Program."_Many Authors [online report] - 1 views
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Metropolitan Institute on 04 Jan 12Walker, Chris, Sarah Rankin, and Francisca Winston. "New Approaches to Comprehensive Neighborhood Change: Replicating and Adapting LISC's Building Sustainable Communities Program." New York, NY: LISC, 2010. In 2006, LISC issued in-house requests for proposals to select 10 cities to participate in the Building Sustainable Communities program, a national expansion of its comprehensive approach to community development, which it had piloted in Chicago through the New Communities Program (NCP). Adopting the core elements of comprehensive community development in a varied set of cities would further test the ability of the approach to offer transferrable lessons for LISC and the field as a whole. This report by LISC's Research and Assessment team is the first installment of a long-term assessment of how the NCP platform has been replicated in the first 10 demonstration cities of the Sustainable Communities program. The authors conclude that a large majority of the 38 Neighborhoods involved in Sustainable Communities are replicating the NCP model, based on examining the following elements: * Target Neighborhoods and their challenges * Supportive and effective community leadership * Quality-of-life planning and comprehensive programs * Intermediation and systemic support "Some sites are blessed with ample foundation support for Neighborhood development; others less so. In some Neighborhoods, leadership is highly concentrated in one of two organizations that work well together; in others, leadership is diffuse and fractious. Nevertheless, the approach has proven adaptable enough to work well across different Neighborhoods in Chicago. Can it be adapted to different Neighborhood and city contexts simultaneously?" The report's findings are based on the LISC research staff's review of program documents, Neighborhood-level statistics, and reports from LISC staff members and technical assistance consultants.