On June 2, 2014, The New York City Change Capital Fund (CCF), a collaboration of 17 foundations and financial institutions dedicated to the revitalization of distressed New York City communities, announced the launch of a new initiative to harness the strength of community development corporations (CDCs) to reduce poverty in high-need New York City neighborhoods.

CCF is funding five New York CDCs to help them retool and refocus their strategies and business models to address persistent poverty more effectively:

• Community Solutions/Brownsville Partnership
• Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation
• New Settlement Apartments
• St. Nicks Alliance
• Fifth Avenue Committee working in partnership with Brooklyn Workforce Innovations, Red Hook Initiative and the South Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation.

Each CDC will be implementing community-based, multi-disciplinary tactics to address systemic poverty and track measurable results. To support this work, CCF is providing each CDC with up to $1 million over four years and technical assistance provided by Nonprofit Finance Fund and Public Works Partners.

Public Works Partners will help each CDC to establish ongoing assessment and outcome evaluation systems, identify key common measures of poverty alleviation and work with the City of New York to access administrative data that will facilitate measurement of outcomes and public savings associated with each initiative.  This effort will build on our work to help human services providers to manage complex multi-stakeholder initiatives, implement data management strategies, and create effective performance management practices.

Public Works Partners is excited for the potential of this new Change Capital Fund initiative and thrilled to be working with a group of dynamic organizations to drive service innovation.  More information on the Change Capital Fund can be found on their website and in the press release for this new initiative.