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What makes Holistic Neighborhood Development unique?
Place-Based
One of the greatest indicators of one’s life-long economic mobility is the neighborhood in which one lives. HND asserts that place is the most important factor to consider when seeking long-term outcomes, and it is one of the most neglected lenses within traditional poverty alleviation tactics. Place allows us to go deep, work broadly, and invest in the long-haul for real results.
Proximity
We cannot solve anything from a distance. We have to draw near, enter into relationship, and open ourselves up to the possibility of mutual transformation. Transactional giving between strangers will never end poverty. You cannot serve someone out of poverty. HND leads with neighboring and relationship.
Integrative
Poverty is neither caused, sustained, or solved by any one thing; it is the dynamic intersection of multiple factors, systems, and circumstances. The “holistic” dimension of HND is about committing to comprehensive engagement that seeks innovative, integrative strategies for long-term outcomes.
Agile
Cities, people, opinions, policies, and economies can all change in the blink of an eye. Strategies that worked last year might night work in the next. Work done for months may come up empty and expectations may get upended at a moment’s notice. HND can create real change because it is flexible and adaptive, constantly committed to the best, healthiest approach, even if that means a radical course correction mid-stream. We do not seek the perpetuation of our program; it is always about the thriving of a community and whatever it takes to make that happen.
Impact-Oriented
Results matter. Not activity, not busyness, not arbitrary program numbers, but impact. They may be hard to come by, hard to define, or hard to measure, but they are core to what it means to commit to HND. We want to see lives and communities thriving, not dependent on external support year after year. We do not settle for less than true and lasting change.
Data-Driven
Flourishing communities is not just a big vision for us. It is a process we have developed with tools to track and measure the health of a place. This process will define and create the strategies that will lead to long-term, lasting change in your neighborhood.
The Neighborhood-Centric City
For the final episode of season one of Place Matters, we’re excited to bring you a conversation between Shawn Duncan and two influential members of the Atlanta community: David Edwards, who is the Neighborhood Policy Advisor to current Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, and Shirley Franklin, who served as the 58th Mayor of Atlanta. They’ll discuss these critical questions: How can cities begin to place neighborhoods as the center of their plans for growth and change? What does it take to make cities places where all people have the chance to thrive?
What Is A Flourishing Neighborhood?
Next up in our Foundations Series, Shawn and David discuss a core question – what is a flourishing neighborhood? How do you define it, and how do you measure it? Measuring success in poverty alleviation is not as simple as you might think. So where do we begin?
Racial Equity Is More Than A Priority
This episode will explore the intersection of race and poverty. Though it is dangerous to conflate race with poverty, there has been a history of disinvestment and high poverty rates in black and brown neighborhoods that demands our attention. Because of this, the pursuit of racial equity must be at the center of everything we do. Join us for a conversation around why racial equity is more than just a priority for FCS, and in holistic, place-based work.