Federal Grant Funding Checklist Applying for funding from the federal government is a difficult and onerous task. While the funds are ultimately meant to help a community address local needs, the process of accessing the funds and ensuring they are implemented in a manner consistent with community priorities can be stressful and time-consuming. The SPARCC […]

Recovery from the Great Recession was uneven and painfully slow for lower-income areas and people of color burdened by decades of structural racism. Some neighborhoods never regained housing values or homeownership levels. One thing we know: when parts of our communities are not healthy and thriving, we all pay a price. The multiple stressors of […]

By Sean Campbell The current financial system rewards the well-resourced and fails most BIPOC and low-income Americans. It simultaneously throws billions of dollars at unprofitable Silicon Valley companies while making capital inaccessible for small businesses and Main Street entrepreneurs. It has also done nothing to close our shameful racial wealth gap–indeed, it has made it […]

Last week Congress passed a $1.5 trillion spending bill that was signed into law by President Biden this week. This comes on the heels of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill signed into law last November. While these bills contain funding for very worthwhile programming and resources, these funds often don’t make it to the organizations […]

In 2020, SPARCC began its second three-year phase, just prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This new report highlights key findings and reflections from 2020-2021. The report by the Center for Community Health and Evaluation shares how SPARCC’s collective work in the first three years laid the foundation for systems change that is […]

SPARCC sites were equipped for the events of 2020 due to the new relationships, trust, and administrative infrastructure built in the first three years of the initiative, which laid the foundation for an effective response in 2020.

As the Biden-Harris administration implements more extensive COVID recovery measures, the importance of “building back better” has never been clearer. Instead of using recovery funds to return to what was, there is an opportunity to envision something better. This is particularly true in communities most adversely affected by the pandemic’s health and economic fallout; these same communities have been long subjected to intentional disinvestment by local, state, and national stakeholders. One pathway to a better future? Community ownership.

Key Takeaways from SPARCC and Urban Displacement Project’s Gentrification and Displacement Analysis By Devin Culbertson, Enterprise Community Partners and Renee Roy Elias, Urban Displacement Project

By Olivia Barrow, Low Income Investment Fund (original post) Billions of dollars in community development investments have been poured into communities over the last several decades, both in pursuit of drawing resources in to improve places as well as creating pathways to opportunities in other communities. But as Black Americans continue to be murdered by […]

Los últimos cinco años han sido los más cálidos jamás registrados a nivel mundial, y las temporadas de inundaciones de primavera, huracanes e incendios forestales están por llegar, y luego se aproximan los meses de verano que se estiman que serán más cálidos que el promedio. Entre los huracanes en el sureste y los incendios […]