How to Revitalize Poor Neighborhoods: Lessons from the Field

Roundtable on initiatives for children, families, and communities

The Roundtable on Initiatives for Children, Families and Communities continued to provide a forum, information and technical assistance for a wide range of people in the field; and conduct in-depth research and analyses in selected areas that represent underlying or ongoing challenges to comprehensive community initiatives.

The roundtable identifies and researches the lessons from initiatives supported by many national funders to improve educational, social and health outcomes for children and families. These are known collectively as comprehensive community initiatives. It began in 1992 under two grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). Other funders also supported the roundtable during the period of the latest grants.

The roundtable's 25 to 30-member roster, which changes slightly from year to year, are representatives of foundations and nonprofits, academics and local and national public officials.

Key Results

  • Project staff launched Web sites with access to core documents in the field and strategies to measure neighborhood-level change.
  • Staff members responded daily to requests for information and technical advice, participated in numerous meetings and gave speeches and presentations.
  • The roundtable published two volumes in the series New Approaches to Evaluating Community Initiatives.

Funding

RWJF supported the project with two grants totaling $353,883 from January 1997 to July 2001.

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