Design Corps supports the vital role that design can play in addressing critical issues and needs of communities. Through the Social Economic Environmental Design (SEED) initiative, Design Corps provides communities, institutions and design professionals with the tools and services they need to integrate community-engaged processes into design activities, leading to projects that reflect a community's values and cultural identities. Public inclusion as a "best practice" in design is...
Homepage - What's New
- Position Vacancy for Assistant Controller
- Pratt Center Report Recognizes Brooklyn Navy Yard As National Model for Economic Development
- Surdna Foundation Announces Appointments of Four New Staff Members
- Leticia Peguero Named Executive Director of Andrus Family Fund and Andrus Family Philanthropy Program
- Let Us Build Cully Park! Eco-District Approach to Community Rebuilding
Many Voices at the Table: Lessons Learned About Collaborative Grantmaking and Civic Engagement in New Orleans
August 2010
OVERVIEW & HISTORY
Like so many others across the nation, the stories and images of the devastation wrought by hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the subsequent levee failures in New Orleans profoundly impacted Surdna Foundation board and staff. As a result, in 2007 we began to take a careful look at whether and how the Foundation might deepen its engagement in New Orleans in support of the city's long-term rebuilding and resiliency efforts. After a series of learning sessions and visits to the region over the course of almost a year, board and staff agreed that the moment was ripe for Surdna to join the work there in a fuller way than we had prior to the storms. In 2008, after much deliberation and consultation, the New Orleans Fund was established with a budget of $5 million, $1 million per year over five years.
From the outset, Surdna board and staff saw it as critical to draw on the expertise of all of our (then five) program areas for the work in New Orleans. A cross-programmatic Working Group was formed, and developed a collaborative and holistic grantmaking approach, drawing on a shared understanding of how the particular needs of the Gulf region fit the mission of the foundation.
As the Working Group became better acquainted with the array of environmental, economic and cultural issues facing New Orleans in the rebuilding process, a palpable groundswell of activism was occurring among New Orleans residents. This shift presented a critical opportunity to nurture and strengthen citizen engagement, weaving a tighter civic fabric and countering a decades-long social and political culture characterized by a dearth of authentic resident involvement. After much discussion, we determined that strengthening and amplifying citizen participation and voices, particularly those from historically excluded or disadvantaged communities, in the rebuilding process was an area of focus where the Fund's relatively modest resources could have the greatest impact.
YEAR ONE
The Fund's first year of grantmaking provided the Working Group with ample opportunity for reflection both internally and externally. The realities of a post-disaster city proved to offer a new understanding of what civic engagement could mean as rebuilding from the ground up allowed for residents' voices to be heard from the nascent stage of policy and program development. Internally, the cross-programmatic work resulted in richer, more substantive discussions about prospective grant proposals, and the grantmaking process evolved to be more authentic, collaborative and collegial.
YEAR TWO
The second year of the New Orleans Fund coincided with internal changes at Surdna. The Working Group revised the Fund's program framework to align with the Foundation's updated mission and new program areas: Sustainable Environments, Strong Local Economies and Thriving Cultures. Nonetheless, civic engagement continued to resonate as the overarching theme for the Fund, and the Working Group made refinements to the framework based on the first year of grantmaking and what we were learning "on the ground." A multi-issue approach to resident engagement continued to enable the Working Group to be responsive to a constantly changing landscape and engage new and evolving areas of concern for residents.
Because of the five-year time limit on the fund, our initial intention was to provide catalytic support for projects and programs that needed a one-time boost to achieve greater impact. During the first year we found that model was not the right fit in all cases. Although some grantees benefited from this approach as they migrated to Surdna's main program areas for ongoing support, we found that the lack of philanthropic support in the region paired with a nonprofit sector in recovery mode meant many grantees faced enormous long-term sustainability challenges. Consequently, the Fund renewed support to several grantees in year two, opening the door to renew grants to other organizations in the future to shore up their civic engagement work. We have found that this flexibility around grant renewals has enabled us to respond to the economic challenges organizations are facing in this difficult economy, and thus better serve the goals of the Fund.
In 2009-2010, the New Orleans Fund made nine grants, totaling just over $1 million dollars with an average grant size of $120K (download grant list for 2009-2010). The work of the second year was influenced by deepening relationships, greater flexibility and increased collaboration with local funding partners. New to the Fund was our support of nonprofit investigative journalism promoting transparency in civic matters, nurturing an emerging youth organizing movement, and investing in parent and student involvement in a comprehensive, citywide process to develop a shared vision of excellence and equity for public education - all fostering a stronger civic fabric in New Orleans.
Just as our 2009-2010 grantmaking cycle was nearing a close, the BP oil spill began to unfold in the Gulf of Mexico. The Fund responded with supplemental support to the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana and the Gulf Coast Fund for Community Renewal and Ecological Health (GCF) - both local organizations poised to respond effectively to the disaster with clean-up, water testing, policy and prevention measures. In the case of the Gulf Coast Fund, our support augmented GCF's regrant funds to smaller local organizations that could efficiently engage the community in disaster response with small sums of money ranging from $2,000-$3,000.
THE ROAD AHEAD
We will continue to look to local and national funding partners for guidance in our long-term approach to regional concerns. Local partners have expressed a need for increased support for advocacy, and several national funders are investing in education, housing, economic development and transit - all long-term strategies for rebuilding that align with the Fund's aspirations. The BP oil spill and the myriad issues resulting from the catastrophe are a good reminder of the need for a strong civic fabric - to respond and rebuild, but more importantly to be prepared for what may come next in such an environmentally, economically and culturally vulnerable region. The Fund has already provided ample opportunity to learn and think about the Surdna Foundation's work, and we continue to look to our grantees and funding partners for insight as we move ahead, investing in residents as they lead the process to rebuild and strengthen the great city of New Orleans.
Investors for Sustainable Communities: $150M Sustainable Investment Pool Targeting Suburban Markets
A working group of major philanthropic and financial institutions, Investors for Sustainable Communities, has announced an effort to coordinate up to $150 million in investments to build stronger communities grounded in more resilient, regional economies that provide opportunity to all residents and that firmly embrace environmental stewardship.
Investors for Sustainable Communities is sponsored by Living Cities, a consortium of 22 of the world's largest foundations and financial institutions working to revitalize America's cities. Participants in Investors for Sustainable Communities include national philanthropies such as the Ford, Surdna and Rockefeller foundations, regional funders such as the McKnight Foundation, and financial institutions such as Citi and Morgan Stanley (a full list is provided below).
The working group's three-part approach, known in policy circles as equitable Transit-Oriented Development (equitable TOD), seeks to: develop healthier, more affordable neighborhoods that offer convenient and safe access to jobs, stores, schools and services; expand transportation options connecting these neighborhoods to the regional economy (e.g. job centers); and ensure that all people-regardless of income, race, age, ability, and similar considerations, can participate in development decisions and share in the benefits.
From 2008 through 2010, participants in Investors for Sustainable Communities invested over $100 million in equitable TOD. Going forward, participants will coordinate their investments, aligning them as appropriate with federal grants such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program, and invite others to invest alongside them - leveraging more than $150 million over the next three years. The effort will also benefit from the participation of national nonprofit organizations such as the Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities, a learning and action collaborative of national and regional foundations and other funding partners, and Reconnecting America, a national organization working to integrate transportation systems and the communities they serve.
"Transit-Oriented Development is a powerful way to make metro areas, the engines of our economy, more competitive, inclusive and environmentally sustainable," said Pablo Farias, Chairman of Living Cities and Vice President of Economic Opportunity and Assets at the Ford Foundation. "Just as important, it offers a chance for low-income people to contribute to and share in the benefits of metropolitan growth. The participants in this collaborative, and the members of Living Cities more broadly, are committed to making this agenda a pillar of our effort to strengthen American cities."
Economic growth is a critical dimension to the effort. "As America begins to rebuild its economy following the Great Recession, we need to ensure we are laying the foundation for lasting and broadly-shared prosperity," said Lee Sheehy, Director of the Region and Communities Program at the McKnight Foundation and co-chair of the working group. "Our ability to innovate and create jobs depends on our ability to connect business, capital and talent as efficiently as possible. China and India get this, and are way ahead of us. We need to grow our options in order to compete." Audrey Choi, Head of Global Sustainable Finance at Morgan Stanley adds, "Designing new, innovative ways to achieve growth by blending public, philanthropic and private capital will be critical to this work."
TOD is also a quality-of-life issue, noted Nick Turner, Managing Director at the Rockefeller Foundation. "Families must have more options to live in places where they can bike or walk to school or the grocery store, or take the bus or train to work," said Turner. "Providing more walkable and transit-oriented development would help hardworking Americans to save more of their time and money. This effort is one step in making sure people have those affordable options."
The working group is particularly interested in the equity dimension of TOD: ensuring that all people can participate in development decisions and share in the benefits and opportunities TOD creates. This means, for example: expanding housing options for working families and seniors near train stations and bus routes; using transit to revitalize distressed neighborhoods while taking measures to prevent low-income residents from being priced out; connecting local residents and businesses to the employment and contracting opportunities created by these investments; and intentionally engaging disadvantaged communities in decision-making to ensure that development meets their needs.
"Millions of working families, particularly those living in 'first-ring' suburbs, have seen their combined monthly housing and transportation costs rise to more than half of their incomes," said Phil Henderson, President of the Surdna Foundation. "At Surdna, we believe there is an economic, environmental, and equity imperative to expand quality transportation options throughout the country, improving residents' access to available jobs, education and training, and other opportunities in their regions."
The working group's emphasis on equity and inclusion was a major factor in the AARP Foundation's decision to participate, according to foundation president Jo Ann Jenkins. "Equitable TOD can provide options for all people, regardless of age or income, so that access to auto transportation does not determine their ability to live independently, connect to their families and communities and access the job market," said Jenkins.
Participants' shift toward collaboration is an important one, stated Living Cities' CEO Ben Hecht. "Our members have been investing individually in this work for years," said Hecht. "But they recognize that no one institution has the means to achieve this agenda on its own. By working across sectors, coordinating their resources and pooling their influence, these organizations can move the needle far more effectively."
The name Investors for Sustainable Communities signals the working group's intent to reinforce the federal policy framework emerging from the recently established Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities. The Partnership, launched in 2009, consists of several federal agencies including HUD, the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency. Partnership agencies are working to align their rules and funding programs so that efforts in housing, transportation, environmental infrastructure and economic development reinforce and leverage one another. Many local and state governments are following suit. Within weeks, HUD, through its Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, is expected to announce grants tallying over $200 million toward the Partnership's goals.
The working group is taking measures to promote the successful adoption of the Sustainable Communities framework at the regional, state and local levels. In early 2011, it will sponsor a "Sustainable Communities Boot Camp" tailored to the needs of regions that will receive grant awards from HUD. The Boot Camp will help arm practitioners with the approaches and strategies they need to build systems that advance economic prosperity, equity and inclusion and environmental stewardship simultaneously.
"The emerging Sustainable Communities Framework is critical to our work," said Sheehy. "This is not a partisan issue. We want to see the Sustainable Communities approach become the way government at all levels does business. We welcome the opportunity to partner with the administration to advance our common goals."
Investors for Sustainable Communities is one of several efforts under way or in development at Living Cities that seeks to address issues affecting people, places and economic opportunity, such as access to education, housing, health care, transit and jobs, simultaneously. On October 28, for example, Living Cities will announce the five urban regions selected to participate in the Integration Initiative, which will provide up to $80 million in grants, loans and Program-Related Investments (PRIs) to support game-changing, cross-sector efforts to create opportunities for low income people.
For additional information on Investors for Sustainable Communities, please see the related program summary.
Investors for Sustainable Communities: Participants
AARP Foundation
The Annie E. Casey Foundation
Citi
Ford Foundation
The Kresge Foundation
The McKnight Foundation
Morgan Stanley
The Rockefeller Foundation
Surdna Foundation
Contact information
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
, Living Cities Communications Director, 646-442-2217
4th Annual Strong Local Economies Grantee Learning Retreat
October 25 - 27, 2010, InterContinental HarborCourt Baltimore
Sessions
Tuesday, October 26th9:00am - 10:30am
Revitalizing Communities: Taking Care of Small Business Development
Session description: Participants will gain a deeper understanding of the changing landscape of small business development and entrepreneurship, as well as the increasing importance of this sector to the community development field—particularly in terms of job creation, wealth building, and community leadership development. Additionally, the session will explore the different approaches to deepen and enhance the overall impact of entrepreneurship on regional economic development strategies.
Jean Horstman, Chief Executive, Interise
Darrin Redus, Chief Economic Inclusion Officer, JumpStart Inc.
Hussein Samatar, Executive Director, African Development Center
Brad Whitehead, President, Fund for Our Economic Future (moderator)
Download presentation...
Additional Reources:
- The Public Conversation Project
The Public Conversations Project guides, trains, and inspires individuals, organizaitons, and communities to constructively address conflicts relating to values and worldviews. - Global Business Network
GBN specializes in helping organizations adapt and grow more effectively and more responsibly in the face of mounting uncertainty — whether it's uncertainty about their future, the future of their industry, or the future of the world at large. Founded in 1987 and part of Monitor since 2000, GBN works in close partnership with leading companies, governments, and nonprofits to help them address their most critical long-term challenges. - The Desphande Foundation
The Deshpande Foundation has recently launched a new Initiative called the Merrimack Valley Sandbox. It is based upon the success of the foundation's initiatives at MIT and in Northwest Karnataka, India. This is a new initiative of the foundation to develop and enhance an innovation ecosystem in the cities of the Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts, including Lowell, Lawrence and Haverhill.
Creating Cooperation: Building Regional, Equitable Transit-Oriented Development
Transit-oriented development (TOD) and transit investments are important economic development strategies that can lead to local and regional competitiveness and job growth. These strategies are most effective when created through partnerships that incorporate community resident-led planning, and include participation by government, business, advocates, foundations, and neighborhood institutions. This panel will feature three speakers who will examine how their participation in public and private partnerships can effectively implement TOD strategies in innovative ways to enhance local and regional economic growth, and what have been the outcomes thus far. Session attendees will understand how transit investments and TOD can be the catalyst to form the necessary alliances and partnerships to effectively plan and implement sustainable communities.
Heather Hood, Initiative Officer, Great Communities Collaborative
Darnell Grisby, Policy Director, Reconnecting America (moderator)
Brian O’Malley, Director, Central Maryland Transportation Alliance
Jonathan Sage-Martinson, Director, Central Corridor Funders Collaborative
Learning from Abroad: Lessons from Cities in Transition
This session will highlight best practices in revitalizing older industrial cities through innovative land use strategies in the United States and Germany. Speakers will address lessons to be learned from the German experience and engage the audience in discussion of how these lessons might be best applied or adopted in the U.S. This session will highlight Leipzig, Germany, where leaders are implementing an integrated, cross-agency strategy that combines center city revitalization with the targeting of funds to key neighborhoods, strategic investments in rail and other infrastructure, the innovative reuse of former industrial spaces, creation of green spaces and the development of new housing and homeownership models.
Lavea Brachman, Executive Director, Greater Ohio Policy Center (moderator)
Dan Kildee, President, Center for Community Progress
Tamar Shapiro, Director Comparative Domestic Policy, German Marshall Fund
Download presentation: Part 1
Download presentation: Part 2
11:00 am – 12.30pm
Leveraging Transit-Oriented Development for Community Benefits
Large public infrastructure investments such as transit are being increasingly leveraged as opportunities for Community Benefits—such as local hiring, affirmative recruitment into construction apprenticeships, permanent-job living wages, set-asides for locally owned businesses, and affordable housing. Taxpayers, having experienced the data-rich Recovery.gov website, expect greater transparency on government spending for job creation. Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) is no longer just “community development;” it is also workforce and economic development. Come hear about best practices from the Partnership for Working Families and Good Jobs First, with a workforce development perspective from Jobs for the Future.
Richard Kazis, Senior Vice President, Jobs for the Future (moderator)
Greg LeRoy, Executive Director, Good Jobs First
Leslie Moody, Executive Director, Partnership for Working Families
Urban Serving Universities – Community Anchors
Universities are powerful assets for revitalizing cities. As place-based anchor institutions, they can provide leadership, knowledge, capital, land, people and other resources to improve the quality of life and vitality in their communities and regions. However, for community, city and regional organizations it can be quite daunting to figure out how to work with them. This session will first outline the various assets that universities bring to the table and the wide-ranging ways they can be deployed for the overall good of the community. Session panelists will then examine partnerships at two universities—Case Western and Johns Hopkins University—to illuminate how to engage with a university, put a partnership together, what makes partnerships successful, and what pitfalls to avoid.
Margaret Carney, University Architect and Planner, Case Western Reserve University
Andy Frank, Special Advisor to the President, Johns Hopkins University
Shari Garmise, VP of Urban Initiatives, Coalition Urban Serving Universities (moderator)
Download presentation part 1
Download presentation part 2
Download presentation part 3
Download presentation part 4
Download presentation part 5
Retooling Urban Manufacturing for Cities in Transition
Learn about the vision and story of two coalitions focused on promoting advanced manufacturing as an economic and community development strategy: the Chicago Manufacturing Renaissance Council (CMRC), and the Great Lakes Wind Network. CMCR is a broad-based partnership in Chicago that promotes advanced manufacturing. The Council founded a public high school and an industrial incubator designed to help rebuild the Austin Community. CMRC has intervened to improve the manufacturing programs in the community college system, and other measures to improve the workforce development infrastructure in Chicago. Often working in partnership, CMRC is promoting market diversification for local companies with the Great Lakes Wind Network to manufacture wind turbine components. The Great Lakes Wind Network (GLWN) works nationally to build broad relationships between the international wind turbine companies and cities, community development professionals, local companies and others. It has recently initiated a program to localize new business opportunities for the full range of companies needed to construct wind farms. These new markets highlight the high end of the green economy and the portal to real community and economic development for our nation. The Network is working to position Northeast Ohio manufacturers and the region as a global supply chain leader in the utility wind turbine market.
Adam Friedman, Director, Pratt Center for Community Development (moderator)
Dan Swinney, Executive Director, Center for Labor & Community Research
Ed Weston, Director, Great Lakes Wind Network
3:00 pm – 6:00 pm: Local Learning Tours
East Baltimore Revitalization Initiative
This visit will be an in-depth opportunity to see and learn about ground-breaking efforts towards responsible redevelopment in one of Baltimore’s most economically and physically depressed neighborhoods. Participants will have the opportunity to see successful historic redevelopment south of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Campus, to the efforts underway to renew a community development effort north of Hopkins. The tour will highlight new and renovated housing developments and the emergence of a new signature high rise residence in the project area. The tour will include visits to development activity that is building on the strength and promise of East Baltimore Development Incorporation’s efforts, including an iconic historic renovation of a non-profit headquarters.
The Role of Arts in Place-Making
Just north of Baltimore’s Penn Station, artists and arts organizations are making major contributions to rebuilding the Greenmount West and Charles North neighborhoods in Central Baltimore. After suffering decades of population loss and disinvestment, these communities are becoming a lively home to working artists, tenants and homeowners. Participants of the tour will see local venues, such a gallery work and live space for artists and low income renters currently under development; the tour will also provide information about the role of the arts and entertainment district, and the Maryland Institute College of Art. Local entrepreneurs and residents to will also share their perspectives.
Red Line Tour
The proposed Red Line is a 14-mile east-west transit line that will provide connection between the Woodlawn area of Baltimore County, West Baltimore communities, downtown Baltimore, Inner Harbor East, Fells Point, Canton, the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center — making travel in these heavily congested corridors simpler, faster and cheaper. The Line will offer enhanced mobility at an affordable price and an improved quality of life, providing people with public transit access to jobs, downtown sports, cultural and entertainment events. During this tour participants will travel along part of the proposed transit line, learning about Line development and opportunities that will be created by this transit connector. Tour participants will meet coordinators and partners of this effort; in addition, participants will learn about workforce development and job opportunities connected to this project.
Here is an interesting piece about a new audio documentary—about the impact of the East-West Expressway plan on West Baltimore, the creation of the Highway to Nowhere, and new projects underway, including the Redline, to stitch the neighborhood back together. Feel free to take a listen: http://soundcloud.com/bad-crow/rooted-unrouted-west
Click to continue to Wednesday sessions...
Surdna Foundation 4th Annual Strong Local Economies Grantee Learning Retreat Agenda (continued)
Wednesday, October 27th
11:00 am – 12:30 pm
Collaboration: Critical Success Factors for Strategic Regional Development Initiatives
Several national experts will candidly examine what factors have contributed to the success and/or failure of their regional economic, community and workforce development initiatives. Hear first-hand about how effective programs are born, nurtured and sustained.
Learn about failures, as well, from people who have failed regularly and spectacularly. And learn about the skills that are necessary to envision, implement and maintain lasting change in this dynamic and rapidly-evolving field. Set in the context of Surdna’s efforts to create economic opportunity, this panel will also explore the real-world trade-offs of trying to move mountains in a resource-constrained environment.
Diane Bell-McKoy, President, Associated Black Charities (moderator)
Evelyn Diaz, Chief Executive Officer, Chicago Workforce Investment Council
Rob Simpson, President, CenterState CEO
Brad Whitehead, President, Fund for Our Economic Future
Download presentation...
Summary of Workforce Development Programs in Illinois, by the Chicago Jobs Council
TOD: What’s Jobs Got To Do With It?
Transit-oriented development (TOD) is often thought of as a housing and neighborhood strategy. However, research and advocacy has been more and more focused on the relationship between transit-oriented development, economies and jobs. Transit investment and transit-oriented development are important economic development strategies that can lead to local and regional competitiveness and job growth. This panel will feature three speakers: Reconnecting America will present new national research on employment locations and TOD, and the implications of this research for communities seeking to leverage transit investments for regional and local economic opportunity. Initiative for a Competitive Inner City will present ongoing research on locally traded clusters that comprise 70% of national employment. Using data from the 100 largest U.S. inner cities, Ms. Lynch will describe tools for practitioners to identify local cluster opportunities along with private sector practices and public policies to support their growth, as well as the implications of this research on questions of regional and metropolitan policies. Good Jobs First will present research on economic development policies and programs at the state and regional level, and will also touch on present research on ARRA funding and state funding programs.
Helen Chin, Program Officer, Surdna Foundation (moderator)
Greg LeRoy, Executive Director, Good Jobs First
Teresa Lynch, Senior Vice President, Initiative for a Competitive Inner City
Sam Zimbabwe, Technical Assistance Director, Reconnecting America
Additional resources:
Smart Growth is Smart Business: Boosting The Bottom Line and Community Prosperity
by NALGEP (National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals)
Building a Great Transit System for the Chicago Region
Chicago Metropolis 2020
Strategic Land Uses: Alternatives for Older Industrial Cities
After significant population loss, many of the nation’s older industrial cities have embarked on ambitious efforts to recreate themselves as vibrant and healthy (but smaller) cities. While taking a new look at land use and how to strategically reuse areas within their boundaries, cities like Baltimore, Detroit, and Syracuse have recognized that they need to attack the problem in multiple ways—such as through planning, policy, practice, and design. These cities are successfully leveraging the public, private, and “third sector,” to strategically target resources to turn the tide of abandonment. This panel will include discussion about a new planning paradigm that includes a range of land use alternatives, leveraging private development through code enforcement and other municipal tools, and partnering with anchor institutions for community-based revitalization.
Michael Braverman, Deputy Commissioner, Baltimore Housing Authority
Jennifer Leonard, Vice President, Center for Community Progress (moderator)
Fred Lewis, Founder, The Dominion Group
Dominic Robinson, Director of Prospect Hill Development, CenterState CEO
Additional resources for larger community conversations
The Public Conversation Project
The Public Conversations Project guides, trains, and inspires individuals, organizaitons, and communities to constructively address conflicts relating to values and worldviews.
Global Business Network
GBN specializes in helping organizations adapt and grow more effectively and more responsibly in the face of mounting uncertainty — whether it's uncertainty about their future, the future of their industry, or the future of the world at large. Founded in 1987 and part of Monitor since 2000, GBN works in close partnership with leading companies, governments, and nonprofits to help them address their most critical long-term challenges.The Desphande Foundation
The Deshpande Foundation has recently launched a new Initiative called the Merrimack Valley Sandbox. It is based upon the success of the foundation's initiatives at MIT and in Northwest Karnataka, India. This is a new initiative of the foundation to develop and enhance an innovation ecosystem in the cities of the Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts, including Lowell, Lawrence and Haverhill.
Phone 212 557 0010