By Sasha Forbes More U.S. households are headed by renters than at any point since at least 1965. In fact, renters have become the majority in almost a quarter of the nation’s 100 most populous cities. In Memphis, that number is as high 58 percent and in Chicago, 51 percent. Renters in the U.S. are […]

SPARCC is a bold, ambitious initiative to change the way communities shape the built environment to reduce racial disparities, build a culture of health, and prepare for a changing climate. The initiative’s long-term goal is to change the way regions grow, invest, and build to benefit all residents, and do not replicate past policies practices […]

By Stephanie Gidigbi The Systems Change Guide explores several key SPARCC concepts and approaches to advance systems change. It spotlights regional efforts and serves as a guide to actualize systems change from theory to reality. It also includes an appendix of tools & resources to assess and prioritize systems change activities. Research shows that place […]

“Why do we have to rely on developers to fix our problems when this is our own neighborhood and we own the land?” asks Renee Martinez-Stone of the West Denver Resistance Collaboration, one of the members of SPARCC’s Denver collaborative table. The West Denver Resistance Collaboration’s West Denver Single Family Plus (WDSF+) program is gaining […]

Over the past year and a half, SPARCC sites have demonstrated their ability to set bold goals to advance racial equity, health, and climate resilience in their regions and, perhaps more importantly, to respond, adapt, and identify the challenges and opportunities emerging through their work. As we reach a midway point in the program, SPARCC […]

Laura Choi, the Research Manager for Community Development at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, recently wrote a blog post reflecting on the National Interagency Community Reinvestment Conference that was held in Miami in March of 2018. In Choi’s post, she discusses the importance of one of the conference’s cross-cutting themes: inclusion and racial equity. […]

By: Mariia Zimmerman Workers, students, care givers, and older adults are among the many different types of community members who struggle to find safe, reliable, and affordable mobility options. Increased investment over the past two decades in public transit is helping to connect more people to economic opportunity. Transit helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and […]

Stephanie Gidigbi, the SPARCC Policy, Capacity, and Systems Change Director and Senior Adviser at NRDC, wrote a post outlining a series of recommendations to improve America’s infrastructure.  Gidigbi emphasizes that we need an infrastructure plan that prioritizes investments that are innovative, equitable, and climate resilient. Past government policies, including redlining, continue to have a negative […]

Last week marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, TN. We were moved by a piece authored by Odetta MacLeish-White, Managing Director at TransFormation Alliance and our SPARCC Atlanta partner, commemorating the life and work of Dr. King and connecting it to the work she, her organization, […]