Lincoln Institute Launches New Community Revitalization Cohort

Representatives from four community-based nonprofit intermediaries came together last week in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to launch the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s first Community Revitalization Cohort (CRC). A project of the Lincoln Institute’s Remaking Local Economies (RLE) program, the CRC is a peer learning community of practice, codesigned with the four intermediaries and focused on forging community well-being strategies in historically disinvested neighborhoods. 

The CRC builds on the assumption that community-led well-being strategies are critical to long-term sustainable and inclusive recovery and growth. Based on the intermediaries’ projects in targeted neighborhoods, this CRC will leverage land policies and other tools to strengthen community capacity, residential well-being, recovery, and regrowth in disinvested communities. 

The following organizations were selected for the CRC for their innovative, holistic approaches to redevelopment designed to strengthen community well-being and regrowth: 

• Invest Detroit, partnering with the City of Detroit, has been leading a robust, decade-long investment in 10 neighborhoods to promote placemaking, streetscaping, commercial and residential improvements, and a new greenway winding through multiple city neighborhoods.  

• The Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE), working with the City of Atlanta on its Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative (NRI), aims to equitably develop and revitalize seven neighborhoods in Atlanta. 

• Neighborhood Allies, focusing on Pittsburgh’s East Liberty, Larimer, and Homewood neighborhoods, is addressing the effects of gentrification and displacement—including the loss of culture and third spaces—and proposing to create “healing maps.”  

• Cleveland Neighborhood Progress (CNP), building on decades of investments in community development corporations, seeks to strengthen and work beyond the city’s community development ecosystem and reevaluate community roles.  

The launch event on November 4–5 was the cohort’s first convening. Economic and community development practitioners from each participating organization shared their projects, identified common challenges and opportunities, and built connections to support peer learning. Throughout the duration of the cohort, the Lincoln Institute will provide intermediaries with facilitated peer learning, training, and strategic guidance rooted in land policy; feature stories about the redevelopment strategies; and pioneer metrics to assess community well-being.  

“We’re grateful for these organizations and their leadership, who came together to share their deep expertise and thoughtful work, while providing space for peer learning and leveraging land policy in new ways,” said Lavea Brachman, interim director of the Remaking Local Economies Program at the Lincoln Institute. “The Lincoln Institute is eager to share our research on inclusive economic development and the ways that communities are pursuing well-being. Our aim is to help these organizations refine their strategies and maximize benefits for their neighborhoods—and ultimately to disseminate best practices and recommendations that would benefit other similarly situated communities.” 

Learn more about the Lincoln Institute’s Remaking Local Economies program. 

Kristina McGeehan is the director of communications at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Lead image: Participants and Lincoln Institute staff gather outside of the Lincoln House in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for the launch of the Community Revitalization Cohort. Credit: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy