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2021 | Spring

IN THIS ISSUE
TTA Talk
In the News
Funding Opportunitites
Upcoming Events

A quarterly greeting and update from your U.S. Department of Education Promise Neighborhoods Team:


Welcome to the Spring 2021 Neighborhood Compass!

We hope the new year has brought hope and energy to your efforts. We are excited about the upcoming months and the many TTA options available. On February 10, the Urban Institute hosted a webinar that introduced some of these offerings; the slides from that webinar are available here.
Pictured: U.S. Department of Education Promise Neighborhoods program team, including (left to right) Elson Nash, Adrienne Hawkins, and Richard Kress.
Based on feedback from grantees, the 2021 goals for TTA are to provide strategies to
  • leverage partnerships to advance cross-systems results and sustain their work,
  • address systemic inequalities in institutional policy and practice,
  • continually assess and improve performance on population-level outcomes,
  • use data and evidence to communicate results for sustainability, and
  • lead capacity building within and across Promise communities.
These offerings include four virtual courses, each three to four months long; four ongoing Communities of Practice; and the annual Promise Neighborhoods National Network Conference. Because of the unpredictable nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 winter conference will be virtual; specific dates will be announced soon. Content from the 2020 virtual conference is available here with login credentials.
This year, participants can sign up for offerings throughout the year. Our goal is to keep the TTA offerings dynamic and to continuously incorporate grantee feedback. The four virtual courses will give participants the opportunity to connect with peers, subject matter experts, and TTA partners and will focus on integrating and applying key skills and strategies. TTA partners, with contributions from various grantees, will also release four research briefs on the following topics:
  • Collective impact for postsecondary results
  • Local data for equitable recovery
  • Communications strategies for place-based initiatives
  • Advancing racial equity in Promise Neighborhoods: challenges and opportunities
We are excited to roll out these offerings and hope you continue to provide feedback so we can serve you better. As always, grantees should reach out to their site liaison if they’d like to discuss these options further or to request individualized TTA.

Want to be featured in an upcoming edition of Neighborhood Compass?

In our recent survey of TTA needs, we heard from many grantees that they would like to see more grantee spotlights in this newsletter. We are exploring ways to incorporate these stories and would love to hear from you if you have a short success story you’d like to feature! Please email PromiseTA@urban.org.

Updates on the latest activities of your Promise Training and Technical Assistance Team and selected resources for grantees...


Creating Lasting Change through Community Leadership. This feature shows through text and images how Promise Neighborhoods work with residents to build capacity and transform their communities, even during a pandemic.

Youth Engagement in Collective Impact Initiatives. This brief explores the benefits of youth engagement in collective impact initiatives like Promise Neighborhoods and highlights how Promise Neighborhoods in West Philadelphia, Southeast Alaska, and Knox County, Kentucky, are engaging young people through school- and community-based initiatives.

Evaluating Programs and Impact within Promise Neighborhoods. This brief discusses how Promise Neighborhoods can use formative and summative evaluation approaches to improve results. It offers guidance for determining which evaluation strategies are appropriate and best practices for Promise Neighborhoods conducting evaluations within their communities.

Advancing Results through Leadership Development: Reflections on Technical Assistance for the Promise Neighborhoods Program. This brief explores the importance of leadership development for Promise Neighborhoods grantees and offers tools and insights for Promise Neighborhoods and other initiatives.

Developing Place-Based Two-Generation Partnerships. This report summarizes research on initiatives in Buffalo, New York; Columbus, Ohio; and San Antonio, Texas, that designed and developed integrated services in their communities over seven years.

Place-Conscious Strategies to Restore Opportunity and Overcome Injustice. This brief offers five guiding principles for place-conscious efforts designed to restore underresourced communities and draws on examples from California.

 

Highlighting Promise Neighborhoods making the news


South Ward Promise Neighborhood (FY 2017 Grantee). As more than half of consumers deal with food allergies, FARE looks to expand access to care. This February 22 article in Food Dive explains a new initiative of South Ward Promise Neighborhood and Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE). The goal of the partnership is to broaden care and treatment for food allergies and education about them in Newark communities. FARE found that Black Americans are significantly more likely than white Americans to develop food allergies, but Black families are less likely to access allergy care. Through its partnership with South Ward, FARE is completing an assessment to understand the food allergy needs in the community and the barriers that community members face.

 

Opportunities for funding that may support or continue the impact Promise Neighborhoods are making in their communities...


The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) posted the FY 2021 Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grants Notice of Funding Opportunity to www.grants.gov on May 12, 2021. With this publication, HUD is making available up to $5 million for Planning Grants. Planning Grants are two-year grants of up to $450,000 that assist communities with severely distressed public or HUD-assisted housing in developing a successful neighborhood transformation plan and in carrying out early action activities to build the support necessary for that plan to be successfully implemented. Applications are due Tuesday, July 13, 2021. More information about the Choice Neighborhoods program can be found here.

Among the provisions of the American Rescue Plan, signed into law on March 11, 2021, is funding that will help students and their schools. Most of the $125 billion for K–12 education is distributed to states based on Title 1 funding formulas, but special streams are also available for students experiencing homelessness, summer enrichment programs, after-school programming, and evidence-based strategies like high-quality tutoring to address “lost learning time” during the pandemic. Local education agencies can use their funding for safe school reopening, school facilities improvements, wraparound services, and investments in teachers.

The Bank of America charitable foundation is accepting applications for funding to support community efforts aimed at boosting economic mobility through affordable housing, small businesses, and neighborhood revitalization. Grants are $5,000-50,000. Applications will be accepted from May 31, 2021, to June 25, 2021.

 

Note: Grantees should monitor and consider all relevant COVID-19 updates and changes to upcoming events. Additional webinars and other virtual events are listed in the COVID-19 Weekly Resource Roundups.

Connected Together and Stronger Than Ever: National Family and Community Engagement Conference (June 1–4; register here). The 2021 National Family and Community Engagement Conference provides an opportunity to highlight innovation and high-impact strategies, and this year will spotlight the School District of Philadelphia. State leaders, school and district leaders, administrators, educators, community-based organizations, researchers, and families will come together to focus on solutions that enhance and expand engagement through family-school-community partnerships. With pre-conference sessions, plenaries, workshops, deep-dive sessions, and more, participants will be immersed in many examples of high-impact engagement work taking place across the country.

 

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This newsletter contains information about and from public and private entities and organizations for the reader’s information. Inclusion does not constitute an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education of any entity or organization or the products or services offered or views expressed. This publication also contains hyperlinks and URLs created and maintained by outside organizations. They are provided for the reader’s convenience.