How a Neighborhood Raises a Child: Creating Resource Rich Neighborhood Youth Ecosystems

Abstract

Purpose Built Communities, a national nonprofit established in 2009, is dedicated to promoting equity and opportunity in disinvested neighborhoods across the United States. The organization supports 27 local organizations, or community quarterbacks, who coordinate initiatives in housing, community wellness, education, and economic vitality in 27 neighborhoods. In the context of education, community quarterbacks aim to create a supportive ecosystem of local schools and youth serving institutions to help all children thrive. In 2022, Purpose Built Communities secured a $3M grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to catalogue best practices and address common challenges in achieving consistently positive outcomes for neighborhood youth. The grant funded 3 community quarterbacks to add staff capacity to focus on the education strategy and enabled Purpose Built Communities to provide intensive support to them. This capstone examines the successes and challenges encountered during the first year of the three-year grant. Utilizing Uri Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (1974), literature on communities of practice, and research on organizational learning, I refined the Purpose Built Communities education strategy, led a community of practice among education staff members across the network, and provided individual consulting services to the three grant funded sites. The findings underscore the potential of mediums like communities of practice and frameworks such as the 4I framework for organizational learning, particularly for national organizations attempting to implement a strategy through a diverse set of local affiliates that they do not directly manage.