The Managing Neighborhood Change Initiative

Managing Neighborhood Change (MNC) is a framework for CDCs, designed by Brooking's Fellow and housing expert Alan Mallach, that seeks to bring new tools to neighborhoods to help stakeholders analyze the local market and determine appropriate strategies to affect needed changes. This includes the development of a protocol, a tool kit and a mechanism for more broadly engaging partners, particularly local governments and institutions, to work as allies in CD endeavors at the local level.

What is the problem?

• Urban neighborhoods are changing all over the US - despite scattered CDC efforts, little focus to either ensuring that revitalization is sustainable - based on solid market footing - or that it is equitable, and does not harm lower income residents.
• CDCs, cities, etc. lack clear, readily-applied and replicable strategies to foster either market change or equitable revitalization.
• Opportunities are lost - revitalization is sporadic, and communities see revitalization and lower-income benefit as zero sum outcomes.
• The field - CDCs, local governments, other key urban institutions - lacks enough awareness of the opportunities and the strategies that can foster sustainable and equitable revitalization.

Why will what we are proposing address the problem?

• It will offer a body of tools that can be used by CDCs and other neighborhood stakeholders in their communities, in order to:
• Further creative thinking about market-oriented neighborhood change on the part of CDCs and other stakeholders within a structured but flexible organizing framework.
• Increase the ability of CDCs and other stakeholders to identify and interpret market-based information about their communities (neighborhood, city and region).
• Increase the ability of CDCs and other stakeholders to use information in order to identify the most effective strategies and uses of resources to foster market change and/or manage change in order to foster equitable revitalization.
• Increase the ability of CDCs and other stakeholders to use information to track neighborhood change in order to (a) evaluate the effectiveness of strategies and programs; and (b) change strategies and programs to reflect changing conditions.
• It will establish a model by which the tools can be disseminated and applied locally.
• It will strengthen the CDC field by fostering peer-to-peer learning and knowledge-sharing around equitable neighborhood revitalization, by:
• Providing a common, accessible organizing framework through which to share information on neighborhood change issues, strategies and outcomes.
• Training practitioners not only to use the framework and tools, but to work with other practitioners as facilitators and technical assistance providers.

What does success look like?

• Utilization of the neighborhood change framework by CDCs, cities, etc.
• Acceptance of the basic principles of the framework by community development practitioners as a 'normal' way of addressing neighborhood revitalization issues.
• Successful outcomes in growing numbers of neighborhoods in which revitalization combines sustainability and equity.

How will we know we're successful?

• The extent to which the neighborhood change framework is adopted within communities, and becomes a generally accepted way of thinking about neighborhood revitalization.

Evidence of successful neighborhood revitalization outcomes combining sustainability and equity