Support
continued for a four-site program that concentrates physical,
economic, and social resources in a single neighborhood. This work
began in Detroit, Hartford, Memphis, and Milwaukee in 1991. Called
the Neighborhood and Family Initiative, it is carried out by
collaboratives made up of community foundations, neighborhood
residents, and local leaders as well as experts from outside the
neighborhoods who bring resources and expertise to local
programs.
The
Foundation also supports urban community development overseas. This
year, funds went to the National Council of Churches of Kenya and
to the Presbyterian Church of East Africa for integrated urban
community improvements, including the promotion of housing and
small businesses. Similarly, in Bangladesh, grants to Proshika
Manobik Unnayan Kendra are supporting broad-based urban community
development activities.
Housing
The
Foundation's work in housing has three principal emphases:
strengthening housing policy organizations, preserving affordable
housing, and supporting housing strategies that promote
self-sufficiency and economic opportunity for low-income
groups.
This year the
Foundation made a three-year grant of $1.4 million to the Low
Income Housing Information Service (LIHIS) for a national
initiative that aims to respond to the challenges presented by the
1990 National Affordable Housing Act. LIHIS, which is also
supported by several other foundations, will channel funds to
selected state housing organizations to enable them to play a role
in the setting of local priorities and to assist in monitoring the
act nationally.
Economic
Development
The shift in
the U.S. national economy from manufacturing to service industries
has resulted in the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of
well-paying jobs in central cities and in job growth in the
suburban areas of metropolitan economies.
The
Foundation supports efforts to provide the poor with job
opportunities in emerging sectors of urban economies; current
grants focus on the health-care field. The Foundation is also
exploring ways of connecting low-income city residents to economic
opportunities in outlying areas of metropolitan economies, by, for
example, providing low-cost transportation to distant job sites.
Finally, the Foundation supports efforts to include an antipoverty
component in public economic development programs.
In developing
countries, the Foundation has emphasized microenterprise and credit
programs in its urban economic development work, including
technical assistance, networking, and research on microenterprise
programs in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Chile.
Children, Youth, and Families
The
Foundation uses several strategies to strengthen economic and
social supports for disadvantaged children, youth, and
families.
As the
recession has driven working families out of jobs and onto the
welfare rolls in record numbers, debate over welfare reform has
become more urgent. This year a grant to the Manpower Demonstration
Research Corporation is supporting programs that will inform
welfare policy regarding: