Community Building- Community Bridging

In recent years, the field of community development
has undergone dramatic change. Comprehensive
community initiatives have emerged
that attempt to work across policy silos and
integrate strategies in the realms of housing,
employment, and health.

Community organizing
has resurfaced as a core element of neighborhood
improvement, helping to strengthen social
fabric and create new types of partnerships for
underserved urban areas. Development itself has
been redefined, with gentrification and displacement
more carefully distinguished from real
gains in earnings and assets for local residents.

Another key trend has been a growing interest
in “thinking and linking” to the region. Advocates
increasingly argue that many problems
affecting neighborhoods, including the departure
of jobs, shortfalls in housing, and gaps in transportation,
are influenced by regional decisions.

While they do not suggest that everything can
be solved at a regional level, they stress that the
region is a ripe arena for action and that regional
organizing can be a useful lever for affecting
neighborhood outcomes.

"The basic notion
of comprehensive
community initiatives
is to go beyond the
“bricks and mortar”
and instead focus on
community vision,
community-building,
and community action"

For the full PDF report: http://cjtc.ucsc.edu/docs/Community_Building_Community%2520Bridging.pdf