100th Issue of Cascade: Investing in Opportunity

Posted by Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia on October 15, 2018

It is with great pleasure that the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia shares this 100th issue of Cascade with you. This issue explores the Reinventing Our Communities conference theme of Investing in Opportunity and discusses three essential paradigm shifts needed to effectively address the community and economic development barriers of the past, meet the challenges of the future, and catalyze action in the present:

• Build wealth rather than extract wealth from communities by becoming intentional about issues of equity.
• Leverage new resources by shifting focus from addressing market failures to also exploring market opportunities.
• Move from short-term, transactional approaches to transformational strategies that foster long-term systems change.

To actualize these paradigm shifts, we must begin investing in opportunity in a holistic way that acknowledges the critical intersections between people and place. Throughout the conference, we explored effective models and emerging strategies for investing in four pillars of capital — human, financial, physical, and social — to foster economic growth by enabling every individual to contribute to and derive benefit from the economy. In this issue of Cascade, our authors share critical insights and bold recommendations to push the next generation of community and economic development practitioners to engage in the policy and programmatic work that will address these issues.

Articles

• Message from the Community Affairs Officer
• Confronting Challenges, Exploring Solutions
• Investing in Transformative Systems Change: A Call for Racial Equity
• Opportunity for Whom? Building Wealth Through Advancing Racial Equity
• Leveraging New Resources by Acknowledging Market Failures While Exploring Market Opportunities
• Investing In Opportunity: Addressing the Root Causes of Civil Unrest in Baltimore

Read the issue here: https://www.philadelphiafed.org/community-development/publications/cascade