Local community, place-based opportunity ecosystems – made up of public and nonprofit organizations working across systems such as human services, early childhood, education, health and workforce development – hold enormous promise in advancing multigenerational family social and economic success.

Through our Place-Based Opportunity Ecosystems strategy, we center racial equity and racial justice to advance multigenerational family social and economic success by supporting cross-sector efforts anchored by public and nonprofit human services organizations to drive person-centered systems change to create the circumstances for families to succeed.

Through partnerships we seek to understand and dismantle historically white dominant/supremacy and racist institutional and structural barriers to multigenerational family social and economic success. Understanding local context, intentionally engaging community residents, and respecting and supporting community driven stories and narratives are essential in this effort.

Direct engagement and meaningful partnerships with the public sector are necessary to realize person-centered systems change that create the circumstances of success and to support authentic family and community agency and power. Given the role of the public sector in the lives of families and communities, Kresge and the American Public Human Service Association have partnered to gain a better understanding key factors that enable place-based opportunity ecosystems in various cities around the country.

Examples include:

St. Paul’s People Prosperity Project

Podcast about Metropolitan Action Commission

Center for Urban Families