What's New

Earlier  this spring Surdna staff and a Board member spent two days in New Orleans as part of our ongoing learning about our work there.  The trip coincided with the end of the Foundation's fourth year of a 5-year commitment to the New Orleans Fund.  Established in 2008, the Fund seeks to advance long-term rebuilding and resiliency efforts in New Orleans by supporting civic engagement in multiple issue areas, including economic development, education, arts and culture, coastal restoration, and worker's rights.

While our staff members  visit the city several times a year, this trip had a different flavor than most; our 3 programs jointly designed the trip to meet with current grantees and explore the possible cross-programmatic linkages in New Orleans that unite our programs' interests.  Over the course of the two days, our meetings with grantees, city officials, and thought partners provided the group with a deeper understanding of the evolving cultural and political dynamics in the city, and magnified the opportunities and challenges at this moment in New Orleans' rebuilding.

Through our meetings with grantees such as Committee for a Better New Orleans, Neighborhood Partnerships Network, the Power of a Million Minds Youth Organizing Coalition, and the Neighborhood Engagement Office, it became clear to us that work to develop a formal mechanism and process for resident engagement has made great strides in New Orleans, and continues to evolve.  For example, we view the establishment of the Neighborhood Engagement Office by the city as a sign of progress that demonstrates the value  the city places on connecting residents to City Hall.  Yet, it was also clear that this formal mechanism for citizen participation will not necessarily lead to robust two-way engagement unless the culture of resident engagement is nurtured in an ongoing manner.    Our visit with the Center for Sustainable Environmental Development in the Lower 9th Ward was a good example of that kind of ongoing sustained work, and a meeting with The Lens highlighted ways that open access to information about happenings in the city contribute to this culture.

We were also struck by a desire for collaboration among organizations in the city, local philanthropic partners, and national funders. This feeling was captured at a funder reception hosted by Surdna for representatives from the Greater New Orleans Foundation, The Foundation for Louisiana, and the JP Morgan Chase Foundation. Over the course of the conversation, there was enthusiasm from all foundations in the room to connect our grantees and figure out how national and local funders can work together in the region to ensure greater impact.

Later in the trip we were privileged to experience impressive examples of collaborative thinking and sharing during two thought provoking meetings with sets of groups concerned with economic development concerns, and infrastructure development initiatives.  And, in our most touch-and-feel experience of the trip, we visited Grow 'Dat, a collaborative project of the Tulane City Center, the New Orleans Food and Farm Network, and City Park, through which New Orleans youth are engaged in transforming a corner of City Park into an urban farm to support public health, local economies, and a sustainable food system in South Louisiana.

New Orleans is a place where Surdna Foundation sees remarkable opportunities given our sustainable communities mission, and this trip served to further illustrate the natural overlaps that exist among the Foundation's programs' interests.   We are fortunate to have such strong partners in the city, and are eager to move into the last year of our five-year commitment to the New Orleans Fund, while looking ahead for future opportunities that intersect with Surdna's mission in the city.

 

A new report by Adie Tomer, released by the Brookings Institution, examines metro-level data on jobs located near transit, the number of workers within reach of job locations, and how these trends vary across industries and across cities and suburbs.  Mr. Tomer ranks the 100 largest metropolitan areas for how effectively transit gives employers access to the metropolitan workforce.

Supplementary individual metropolitan profiles explain metropolitan transit coverage, labor access rates, and industry trends.  Salt Lake City, San Jose, and Honolulu top the list of areas that provide the best labor access via transit, while Palm Bay, Poughkeepsie, and Riverside are at the bottom and provide the worst access. The report concludes with policy recommendations, calling for public and private sector leaders to shift policy to enhance transit accessibility by: 1) considering job locations in transit investment decisions; 2) using policy levers and governance reforms to enhance access to suburban locations; and 3) investing in data systems to improve decision making.

Access Where the Jobs Are: Employer Access to Labor here.

Surdna grantee PolicyLink created an online forum for equity leaders on it's EquityBlog site to weigh in with reactions to its report, "America's Tomorrow: Equity is the Superior Growth Model."

Phillip Henderson, President of the Surdna Foundation, contributed to the blog.  Read Phil's comments here, and link to the EquityBlog site to read other reflections.

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Over the past few years, as our national political discourse has become ever more discordant and dysfunctional, I have been trying to think through how we can talk productively about social solidarity, about caring for our neighbors and for our fellow community members. Somehow in the most extreme language of the far right and far left we risk ending up nowhere. The economic struggles of the country, which America’s Tomorrow points out, have been especially severe among Latinos and African Americans, and caused a deepening of cynicism and anger among a growing cross-section of the country.

At Surdna, we are interested in sustainable communities, and we have a strong sense that social justice and equity are critical to making our communities livable, prosperous, and ultimately sustainable. Fundamentally, we don’t believe that this view of communities is at odds with notions of liberty, freedom, prosperity, and other notions that find their place in the discourse of conservative politics.

It’s been so pleasing to see the evolving thinking and sharpened focus emerging from PolicyLink and PERE (Program for Environmental and Regional Equity) that helps us think more clearly about how focusing on equity and fairness, in the context of our ever diversifying nation, is the path towards prosperity, not at odds with it. This is a more fundamental observation about how we need to embrace what our nation is becoming and turn what some would fear – a growing proportion of our communities becoming majority people of color – into a source of economic and social strength.

One of my favorite big city mayors, Minneapolis’ R.T. Rybak has a great riff on this. His city was historically one of the whitest and most homogeneous in the nation, but the past two decades have seen an amazing increase in the proportion of immigrants in vast swaths of the city. Mayor Rybak talks endlessly and compellingly about the incredible opportunity increased diversity brings to the city and how language skills, cultural fluency, and international networks should be developed as a source of strength for generations to come. Rather than place barriers or seeking to tamp down these emerging communities, the mayor is seeking ways to embrace and invest in this asset of the community. I think he’s found his way to the same ideas as PolicyLink and PERE, that prosperity and diversity are linked, and will, in fact, depend on the other over the coming decades in American society.

To follow the lead of America’s Tomorrow is no small feat. It requires more than just a few policy tweaks. It requires a broad and deep attitudinal shift that’s not about the political left finally selling the rest of America on social justice. It’s about helping all of us see a path forward. A path that embraces what we’re becoming as a nation and, like Mayor Rybak suggests, figures out how to turn what seems to many like a scary set of changes into a source of strength for our future.

 

Amid continuing mixed signals about the economy, one notable bright spot is the revival of U.S. manufacturing.  The Brookings Institution recently released the latest "How We're Doing" index: “Amid Fiscal Uncertainty, Manufacturing Is Up,” by Bruce and Martin Baily, Brookings Senior Fellow in Economic Studies. Bruce and Martin analyze the past five quarters of economic data to explore how growth in manufacturing is helping support the nation's fragile economic recovery. They write, “Amid continuing mixed signals about the state of the economy, one notable bright spot is the revival of U.S. manufacturing. The surprising strength of this once-battered sector holds promise for strengthening the U.S. economy overall, and despite continued troubles in Europe its new vigor may provide a boost to the global economy.”

The Surdna Arts Teachers Fellowship Program (SATF) announced Fellowship recipients for the 12th round of its national awards. This will be the final year of the SATF program before it transitions to the National Arts Teachers Fellowship Program (NATF) at the Center for Arts Education at the Boston Arts Academy (see complete details about the transition).

Twenty outstanding arts teachers, representing 16 schools in 14 states from around the country, were selected from an initial pool of 65 applicants.  A total of $110,000 was awarded to teachers, and an additional $1,500 will be awarded to their schools for post-Fellowship activities. The teachers excel in a broad spectrum of visual, performing, and literary arts.

Award recipients were evaluated by a peer review panel based on demonstrated excellence both as artists and teachers.  All permanently assigned, full- and part-time arts faculty in eligible arts high schools were invited to submit applications.

For a list of this year's Fellows and descriptions of their Fellowship activities, click here. Beginning July 1, 2012 the program will be renamed the National Arts Teachers Fellowship (NATF) and will be under the direction of the Center for Arts Education at the Boston Arts Academy in Boston, Massachusetts.

See complete information about the program's transition to the Center for Arts Education at the Boston Arts Academy.

Information about applying for the 2013 NATF program is available here.

A Yale expert on American and international public opinion on climate change and the environment will receive an Environmental Merit Award from the New England Office of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, is being recognized for his exceptional work and commitment to the environment in 2011. The annual award, according to the EPA’s regional administrator H. Curtis Spalding, recognizes outstanding environmental advocates who have made significant contributions toward preserving and protecting the nation’s natural resources.

“This award means a lot, not just to me but to our larger team of scientists, staff and supporters that make our work possible,” said Leiserowitz.

Leiserowitz is an expert on public opinion on climate change, including public perceptions of climate change risks, support for and opposition to climate policies, and the public’s willingness to make individual behavioral changes related to climate change and energy use. His research investigates the psychological, cultural, political and geographic factors that shape public environmental perception and behavior.

He has served as a consultant to the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, United Nations Development Program, Gallup World Poll, Global Roundtable on Climate Change at the Earth Institute at Columbia University and the World Economic Forum.

For more information about his work, visit http://environment.yale.edu/climate/.

The 2012 BALLE Business Conference: Real Prosperity Starts Here will take place in Grand Rapids, MI from May 15-19.  The conference connects you to the best people, resources and ideas to unleash local prosperity. Join more than 700 community innovators, business owners, and investors to:

• Learn from pioneering entrepreneurs what business practices have the most triple bottom line impact
• Network with the nation's local movement founders and visionaries
• Witness how the latest community capital techniques are transforming the local economy landscape
• Catch the latest local business developments in public policy and economic development
• Be inspired by local, community-supported everything: food, finance, manufacturing, energy, retail, and more

 

For more information, visit the BALLE Website.

Surdna's three program teams attended The Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities (TFN) conference in Seattle on March 26-28.  The Funders’ Network is an affinity group that aims to inspire, strengthen and expand funding and philanthropic leadership that yield environmentally sustainable, socially equitable and economically prosperous regions and communities. The annual conference brings together TFN members and other stakeholders interested in leveraging land-use policy and practice to achieve positive results for the environment, economy, community, and people.

During interactive mobile learning tours organized by TFN, staff visited several sites across the city including the Seattle Arts Museum, the Pike/Pine Corridor, and the Duwamish River. These locations function as important cultural, economic, and environmental landmarks in the city, and provide a glimpse into the history and ever-changing racial, ethnic, and economic dynamics of this city of more than 600,000 people. Below are pictures from some of the sites staff visited.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This summer, the Obama Administration announced the launch of the Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) Initiative.  This new interagency pilot initiative is designed to spark economic growth in local communities while ensuring taxpayer dollars are used wisely and efficiently.  SC2 will break the federal government out of its traditional roles to partner with local governments more effectively.

As part of this initiative, a new fellowship program will select, train, and place early to mid-career professionals to serve multi-year terms in the cities of Chester, PA; Cleveland, OH; Detroit, MI; Fresno, CA; Memphis, TN; and New Orleans, LA and assist them in their economic revitalization efforts.  Up to 30 fellows will be deployed to one of these six pilot cities and will be integral to creating partnerships among local community organizations, anchor institutions, businesses, foundations and other government agencies, with the goal of helping to leverage federal investments and increase economic impacts.

Registration for the 2012 Strategic National Arts Alumni Project is open!  Any arts degree-granting institution of higher education or arts high school is eligible to participate. Join the hundreds of institutions that have participated in SNAAP.  The registration deadline is June 15, 2012 and surveying will take place this fall.

• Read the Press Release...
  
• 2012 Invitation to Participate...

For more information on SNAAP, its benefits to your institution, pricing and registration form, visit www.snaap.indiana.edu