The interview has been edited for length and clarity. He is an urban planner and a national expert in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program and a variety of federal housing grant programs, including Choice Neighborhoods, HUD Rental Assistance Demonstration, and Section 8, among others. New findings published in the Journal of Neuroscience found people made better decisions when they considered others. How does geography limit your access to opportunities and what can be done to change that reality? While working as a manager in the Teach For America Rio Grande Valley office, he created and championed an alternative goal-setting methodology that was adopted by the other Texas regions. Having a high-performing neighborhood school that's about the most important thing to sustain high-quality mixed-income housing. Alexandra Wiggins supports current Network Members and assists new prospects as Vice President for Purpose Built Communities. In a study by Queens University, 27% of people said they were suffering from loneliness, and research from Washington State University found all ages suffer from social anxiety and FOMO (fear of missing out) which are correlated with low self-esteem and low self-compassion. NAUGHTON: There are three key strategies. As Plato said, The part cannot be well unless the whole is well. Communities take care of their members and vice versabecause they are invested in the collective success of the group. She says the East Lake model has shown success. Ben is the Special Assistant to the CEO at Purpose Built Communities. If 200 people end up being housed in the Alexandria village, its total construction cost, which was about $8.6 million, works out to $43,000 per bed, and running the site costs $55 per person per . People appreciate being welcomed and valued. In a wide-ranging interview, Naugton and Eytan Davidson, Purpose Built Communities' vice president of communications, talked about the creation of their organization, how housing and community health intersect, and what challenges have been the most difficult to solve. To meet the demand, Naughton says, the East Lake Foundation created Purpose Built Communities in 2009. In her current role as Human Resources and Office Manager, Linda plays a critical role in attracting, retaining, and developing top talent within our organization. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. A native of Columbia, SC, Zenith holds a bachelors in science and a masters degree from the University of South Carolina in Criminal Justice. Prior toRead More. TheRead More. One of these people is 66-year-old Carl Griffith, who was born and raised about a mile from here. (Getty Images/iStockphoto). I write about happiness, work-life fulfillment and the future of work. Recognized by the Urban Land Institute as a national model for community redevelopment, the East Lake Foundation was created in 1995 to help transform one of Atlantas most troubled neighborhoods. Amy Clear is a seasoned fundraising professional with years of experience in the nonprofitRead More. Marilyn Hack (middle) and her daughters Terez and Maliha have lived at the Villages of East Lake for 15 years. 'Chief Storytellers': The Newest City Trend? Why have past efforts to address poverty not resulted in more meaningful improvements for distressed neighborhoods? Despite your success, there must still be challenges. You may opt-out by. A proud product of Georgia public schools, Ashley grew up in Atlanta attending Atlanta Public Schools and then went on to receive a bachelors degree in anthropology and French from the University of Georgia and a masters degree in city and regional planning from the Georgia Institute of Technology. [4] Through the East Lake initiative, Cousins helped turn one of the nation's most violent public housing projects into a national model for community redevelopment. But he argues the aim of the redevelopment was to change the character of the neighborhood. Elly Yu/WABE Cousins is the man behind some of Atlanta's most prominent buildings, and when the city began tearing down public housing in the '90s, he says, he wanted to try something different with East Lake. Melissa Devereaux brings over 20 years of experience in nonprofit management, development and volunteer/partner engagement to her work with Purpose Built Communities. Through the middle of the 1900s in racially-segregated Columbus, well-known African-American entertainers, such as the likes of Sammy Davis, Jr. and Ella Fitzgerald, frequently performed to white audiences downtown, but they were not welcome as overnight guests in that part of the city. "It's been turned completely around," Taylor says. Katie Delp has committed her career to developing communities into thriving socially, economically and racially equitable neighborhoods. Since Purpose Built Communities was established by Warren Buffet, Tom Cousins and Julian Robertson in 2009, we have been dedicated to improving community health and addressing racial equity. There, April worked alongside a multi-disciplinary team of social scientists to advance the organizations strategic outreach and engagement initiatives with partners across various advocacy fields, including housing, education, health, and human services. from the College of Education at The Florida State University. The East Lake Meadows housing project opened in the 1970s and soon became synonymous with crime, poverty and poor education a place, Naughton says, where the crime rate was nearly 20 times the national average, median household income was about $4,500 and the unemployment rate was staggering. In this capacity, she plays a central role in building relationships amongRead More. Projects he has planned and developed have won the prestigious Congress for New Urbanism Charter Award of Excellence and the National AIA Honor Award. Before relocating to Michaels Atlanta office in 2017, Mikki served as Vice President in Michaels Chicago office where she played an integral role in the development of more than 1,500 housing units under the Chicago Housing Authoritys Plan for Transformation. Real estate developer Tom Cousins saw great potential, and also a great challenge. South City is a historic community in Tallahassee, Florida that borders a promising commercial district. Prior to joining Purpose Built Communities, she served as a manager at Coxe Curry & Associates. She then spent two years teaching students English as a second language in Lyon, France. This has included leading professional development programs in aspiring leaders and support for new teachers and principals. Purpose Built Communities helps local leaders create greater racial equity, economic mobility, and improved health outcomes for families and children. NAUGHTON: The folks from the East Lake Foundation and the housing authority started meeting together to plan what we would do if we could do something better. A principal must not just be a great leader within the school, but also a community leader, and be really connected to what's happening outside of the four walls of the school. Now, people are finding out about us and they're coming to us, and some of them have a much better understanding of it. The course that hosts the event the East Lake Golf Club is in the middle of a once-struggling neighborhood known for poverty, crime and a troubled public housing project. When work is stellar, recognize it. As Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Ellen Newton is responsible for Purpose Built Communities financial stewardship, developing and implementing the organizations overall financial strategy.Ellen previously served as CFO at Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta (GSGATL). Michelles guidance has enabled nonprofit organizations, such as Families First, the Task Force for Global Health, and Communities in Schools of Atlanta; educational institutions, such as Spelman College and Atlanta Public Schools; and numerous Fortune 500 companies, such as Delta Air Lines, Kimberly Clark and Georgia Pacific to implement strategic change and improve individual, team and organizational performance. Catalina has worked as a consultant for Charles R. Drew Charter School as a project manager focused on implementing state and federal grants on the sustainability and dissemination of the work at Drew. The area is comprised of eight neighborhoods: Blacks Bluff, Mt. In 1995, Tom Cousins purchased historic East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia with the intent to restore it and give its profits to the East Lake Foundation, a foundation he established to help fight poverty within the East Lake Community. It sounds like the start of a bad joke: A billionaire, a city official and a resident get together in Atlanta. But the cost means that not everyone can play here. Prior to Purpose Built Communities, Linda had 15 years of experience in executive administration, account management, and sales in both the private and nonprofit sectors. "Whatever statistic you looked at, you could see that people were really struggling," she says. Strong communities have a significant sense of purpose. Alexandra is a proud Georgia Bulldawg completing her undergraduate studies at The University of Georgia as both an NCAA Scholar Athlete dancer and HOPE Scholarship recipient. The East Adams Street neighborhood was devastated in the 1950s and 1960s to make space for Interstate 81. There, she provided strategic fundraising counsel and management to numerous Atlanta-area nonprofits across capacities ranging from capital campaigns to board development to general fundraising consulting. This work focuses on building a community of practice via peer-to-peer engagement, documentation of best practices and innovation, and regular convenings of network members. EIN: 45-4056587. Founded in 2009, Purpose Built Communities is taking on the task together with local partners in 28 cities around the United States. He has led planning and development efforts for major projects across the United States, including such diverse cities as Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Birmingham and Charlotte, with a development value of over $2 billion. Melissa is a creative fundraising strategist and loves inviting and engaging volunteers and partners into the work of improving the community for all who live there. In addition, the needs of each member and the needs of the whole organization are fully met. East Lake Foundation President Danny Shoy Jr. "They're only taking the best of the best," says Deirdre Oakley, who teaches sociology at Georgia State University. Evan Smith is a Vice President at Purpose Built Communities, a non-profit, pro bono consulting firm that believes everyone deserves the opportunity to live and raise their children in communities where they can achieve their full potential. A strategic senior executive, she boasts more than 20 years of proven experience in successfully driving innovation to build growth and long-term sustainability for diverse, national, and local organizations. She provides critical leadership to and project management of all aspects of Purpose Built and the networks racial equity and justice work, including the TruistRead More. She is also a board member for the Quality Care for Children. Shoy says he understands why some residents pushed back at elements of East Lake's transformation. Zenith Houston is the Senior Vice President of Strategic Partners, where she leads all fundraising, communications, and marketing efforts and design systems aimed at advancing Purpose Built Communities mission. Focused Community Strategies (FCS) has been partnering with under-resourced Atlanta neighborhoods for forty years starting with Grant Park, and then Ormewood Park, Summerhill, and East Lake. Build your community by keeping your purpose in mind and reminding yourself of how your contribution matters. "What I really wanted was the stability and someplace safe," Hack says, "and that's what I found here.". James Jim Brooks, AICP, is Vice President of Housing and Community Development. Ashley began her career as a kindergarten and second grade teacher at an elementary school in Philadelphia as a Teach for America corps member. East Lake led Cousins and other investors like Warren Buffett to create a nonprofit consulting group called Purpose Built Communities to take the idea national. We appreciate a small circle of people, but need larger circles as well. There are high levels of trust and psychological safety in which people know others will have their backs and will give them not only the benefit of the doubt, but the space to apply their talents and develop new ones. The Purpose Built newsletter offers insights into the many facets of community development, news from Network Member, the latest research and information on best practices for removing barriers to racial equity, and much more. The former St. Bernard public housing development in New Orleans was transformed after Hurricane Katrina, using the East Lake Foundation model. Even everyday contributions matter to the community as a whole. A strategic seniorRead More, Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships. NAUGHTON: There are a number of cities that have more than one of these now. What makes it work? Those are things that nobody teaches principals how to do it's not in the curriculum anywhere when you learn how to be a principal. We didn't appreciate that the community development business was, in many ways, the arms and legs of the public health world, the community-level health world. Purpose Built works to improve neighborhoods so that they become platforms that support families working to improve their lives. Before joining Purpose Built, Ashley was a community and economic development research analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, specializing in workforce development policy. Value and Impact of the Purpose Built Community of Practice: 2019-2021 INTRODUCTION Purpose Built Communities (Purpose Built) brings together Network Members (NMs) leaders and staff from organizations representing dozens of efforts to improve neighborhoods across the country in a networked Community of Practice (CoP) structure. He is the former Deputy Executive Director for Development for the Atlanta Housing Authority, where he helped lead the team that planned Centennial Place and Villages at East Lake, the mixed-income, mixed-use communities that became national models for urban housing development and affordable housing revitalization. Help members of your group who are struggling by encouraging plenty of expression, especially from those with fresh or novel opinions. In this capacity, she plays a central role in building relationships among Purpose Built network members across the country, in order to strengthen the ability of neighborhood revitalization leaders to share best practices and apply effective strategies in their respective communities. Where else has Purpose Built Communities had an influence? For seven years leading up to the creation of Purpose Built Communities, she served as the Executive Director of the East Lake Foundation, the innovative nonprofit organization that serves as the community quarterback organization for the East Lake neighborhood. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Editor. Today, Growing Together and its partners are building on that solid foundation in the neighborhood, which serves as a hub for Tulsas vibrant Latinx community. Theres no part of the city with more potential to grow and add vitality to our region than Southeast Raleigh. Catalina has worked with the Purpose Built Communities team since 2015 when she launched the Purpose Built Communities Principal Residency Program. What's the philosophy behind Purpose Built Communities? Grove Park Foundation (GPF) has grown out of the efforts to restore several historic neighborhoods suffering from decades of disinvestment and environmental degradation on the Westside of Atlanta. [3], Purpose Built Communities is based on the East Lake Model. How can we reimagine housing to advance equity? When President Eisenhower created the U.S. Interstate Highway System in 1956, transportation planners tore through the nation's urban areas with freeways that . She is a trusted advisor with more than 30 years of experienceRead More. CLE Purpose Built Communities has strong local community development partners that lead the housing work in each community. 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