The Community Revitalization Fellowship of the Center for Community Progress is a learning opportunity designed to help cohorts of grassroots community leaders revitalize neighborhoods that are struggling with serious challenges related to vacancy, abandonment, and disinvestment.

Each year, six resident leaders from three communities (eighteen people in total) are selected as fellows. They participate in learning exchanges in each other’s communities that feature a mix of technical and leadership trainings as well as local neighborhood tours. Fellows also develop strategies or projects to improve vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties in their neighborhoods.

The Community Revitalization Fellowship is designed as an opportunity for participating fellows to gain knowledge about neighborhood stabilization and revitalization strategies, tools, and systems; lead a strategic and impactful revitalization strategy or project; build connections with fellows both within and across participating communities; strengthen relationships with local organizations, elected officials, and other local leaders; and increase effectiveness of resident-led neighborhood interventions and advocacy. The program will better equip fellows to advocate for and lead change that improves vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties through creative placemaking in their neighborhoods. The fellowship will also build the capacity of a key institutional partner in each of the communities to provide ongoing local support to the fellows and their neighborhoods.

Throughout 2022-23, the Community Revitalization Fellowship will focus on helping residents lead community-based efforts to improve vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties specifically through the practice of creative placemaking. The cohort roles and structure include:

Institutional Partner — Lead Applicant: Will provide support, mentorship, and logistical help to their community’s cohort of fellows during the application process and, if chosen, over the course of the fellowship. Community foundation, land bank authorities, or any established 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations with experience in revitalization and a deep commitment to resident engagement are invited to apply.

Fellows — Grassroots Community Leaders: Each community chosen for CRF will have a cohort of six fellows. This cohort comprises grassroots community leaders representing a diverse range of skills, connections to the community, and neighborhoods across the community.

The program features three learning exchanges for fellows in each of the three cohort communities; a virtual revitalization workshop for a broad group of stakeholders in each community; the opportunity to attend the Community Progress’ Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference, and an award of $10,000 for a creative placemaking project designed by the fellows and $4,000 to support the institutional partners’ leadership in the program.

All organizations and individuals who are considering applying for the 2022-2023 Community Revitalization Fellowship are invited to join an informational webinar about the application process on Thursday, February 3, 2022, 12:00 p.m. EST. The webinar is optional, and registration is required.

For complete program guidelines, application instructions, and to register for the webinar, see the Center for Community Progress website.

Deadline: February 25, 2022

The Community Revitalization Fellowship of the Center for Community Progress is a learning opportunity designed to help cohorts of grassroots community leaders revitalize neighborhoods that are struggling with serious challenges related to vacancy, abandonment, and disinvestment.

The opportunity is designed to engage a team comprising one institutional partner and six grassroots resident leaders from three separate communities with populations of 300,000 or less for a yearlong fellowship, which includes three cross-community learning exchanges, a revitalization workshop for residents of each community, and ongoing capacity-building assistance and mentoring for national experts and local partners.

In 2020, CRF will focus on helping residents lead community-based efforts to improve vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties through creative placemaking. Creative placemaking is defined by the center as a community revitalization tool with three essential components: projects are place-based; projects are integrated with other strategies; and the process is community-centered.

The fellowship is designed for small and midsized communities with populations of 300,000 or less. (Population is determined based on the population of the legal jurisdiction of a whole, such as a city or town.) Priority will be given to communities with serious challenges related to vacancy, abandonment, and disinvestment, with a focus on low-income communities of color.

The lead applicant must be a local organization, such as a community foundation, that has in-depth knowledge of the community’s neighborhood associations and resident leadership as well as a commitment to resident engagement, experience in community and economic development, and the willingness to serve as the institutional partner to the community’s cohort of fellows.

All travel, lodging, and on-site meal expenses associated with each learning exchange are covered for fellows and one representative from the institutional partner. In addition, each fellow will receive a $230 stipend following each of the three learning exchanges (up to $690 total), while the institutional partner will receive $14,000 to support its participation in CRF.

An informational webinar will be hosted by Community Progress on October 23 at 12:00 p.m. EST. Registration is required.

See the Center for Community Progress website for complete program guidelines, application instructions, and to register for the webinar.

Deadline: November 20, 2019

Learn more and apply: https://www.communityprogress.net/community-revitalization-fellowship-pages-541.php

This second edition builds on the legacy of the first, which was released in 2011 and helped to shape multiple state land bank enabling laws while impacting the operations of land banks nationwide, and features new research and insights for practitioners and policy-makers. Download the report here.

http://action.communityprogress.net/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=8679

Land Banks: Combating Blight and Vacancy in New York Communities

An estimated 120 land banks exist in the United States, and their ability to adapt to local conditions and needs is helping communities, large and small, address the negative impacts of vacant, abandoned, and tax-delinquent properties, according to Take it to the Bank: How Land Banks Are Strengthening America’s Neighborhoods, a new report from the Center for Community Progress.

“What we found confirms that land banks are not one-size-fits-all,” said Kim Graziani, vice president and director of national technical assistance at the Center for Community Progress, who oversaw the research.

The report finds that local factors, such as the scale of vacancy and abandonment, influence nearly all aspects of a land bank’s operations. Land banks vary in staff size and structure, the number of properties each takes on (ranging from a handful to tens of thousands), and the strategies for maintaining those properties and returning them to productive use.

See more at: http://www.communityprogress.net/our-press-releases-pages-31.php

The Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference is the premier gathering of leaders from across the country exploring innovative solutions for tackling vacant, abandoned and problem properties. Themed “Beyond Blight: Building a Bold Movement,” the 2015 conference will explore the latest tools to combat vacancy and move beyond neighborhood blight, as well as how government officials, community leaders, and others in the field can join forces across departments, cities, and even states to achieve wide-scale positive change. Conference sessions will highlight work from around the country, including efforts in Michigan.

Details Here

http://www.communityprogress.net/conference-pages-422.php