The American City Agenda: Bottom-Up or Top-Down?
posted on: Thursday, May 22, 2008
by Aaron Dorfman
Yesterday, I attended a briefing at the National Press Club announcing the “The American City Agenda,” an ambitious new initiative by Living Cities to reform policies affecting urban communities. The mayor of Cleveland, the Lieutenant Governor and the Governor of Ohio were all on hand here in Washington, D.C. to announce the initiative’s launch in Cleveland.
Nine of the nation’s largest foundations and several large banks are among the partners of Living Cities. Collectively, they have invested over $543 million in 23 urban communities since 1991 and have pledged to reach $750 million by 2011. This new initiative is part of that effort.
The press release states, “Beginning with Cleveland, The American City Agenda will consider where policy is blocking needed reform, work to overcome outmoded and siloed systems, and develop the approaches needed to solve today’s challenges.”
That sounds great to me. NCRP has long advocated that foundations should invest in efforts to change public policy if they want to have a real and lasting impact on the issues that affect lower income communities.
I do, however, have one major concern. Nowhere in the printed materials or in any of the speeches did anyone mention if or how low-income residents themselves will be involved in shaping the policy agenda that will impact them and their families. No one spoke about community organizing or about reaching out to engage grassroots leaders in this ambitious effort. Will Living Cities be investing only in top-down reform efforts, or will they be investing also in community organizing groups and other grassroots organizations as part of this great effort to influence urban policy?
Ben Hecht is the relatively new CEO of Living Cities. He seems extremely talented. I’m sure he’ll figure out that part of the investment needs to go to bottom-up reform efforts if the results are going to have lasting impact on our nation’s cities.
Aaron Dorfman is executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.
Yesterday, I attended a briefing at the National Press Club announcing the “The American City Agenda,” an ambitious new initiative by Living Cities to reform policies affecting urban communities. The mayor of Cleveland, the Lieutenant Governor and the Governor of Ohio were all on hand here in Washington, D.C. to announce the initiative’s launch in Cleveland.
Nine of the nation’s largest foundations and several large banks are among the partners of Living Cities. Collectively, they have invested over $543 million in 23 urban communities since 1991 and have pledged to reach $750 million by 2011. This new initiative is part of that effort.
The press release states, “Beginning with Cleveland, The American City Agenda will consider where policy is blocking needed reform, work to overcome outmoded and siloed systems, and develop the approaches needed to solve today’s challenges.”
That sounds great to me. NCRP has long advocated that foundations should invest in efforts to change public policy if they want to have a real and lasting impact on the issues that affect lower income communities.
I do, however, have one major concern. Nowhere in the printed materials or in any of the speeches did anyone mention if or how low-income residents themselves will be involved in shaping the policy agenda that will impact them and their families. No one spoke about community organizing or about reaching out to engage grassroots leaders in this ambitious effort. Will Living Cities be investing only in top-down reform efforts, or will they be investing also in community organizing groups and other grassroots organizations as part of this great effort to influence urban policy?
Ben Hecht is the relatively new CEO of Living Cities. He seems extremely talented. I’m sure he’ll figure out that part of the investment needs to go to bottom-up reform efforts if the results are going to have lasting impact on our nation’s cities.
Aaron Dorfman is executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.
posted by NCRP at
4:58 PM
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