Community Change: a Nder Son a Nd Patr Ici a a Ici Patr Nd a Son Nder

edited By Karen CommunityFul Change: B r ight- Community Change: a nderson and Patricia Theories, Practice, and Evidence Practice, and Theories, Theories, Practice, and Evidence edited By Karen FulBr ight-a nderson and Patricia ausPos a us P os 06-001 Community Change: Theories, Practice, and Evidence edited By Karen FulBr ight-a nderson and Patricia ausPos Extended Uses The Aspen Institute encourages the use of this document. Reproductions in whole or in part are allowable without permission provided appropriate documentation is given. To Order Additional copies of Community Change: Theories, Practice, and Evidence can be obtained from: The Aspen Institute Fulfillment Office P.O. Box 222 109 Houghton Lab Lane Queenstown, Maryland 21658 Phone: 410-820-5338 Fax: 410-827-9174 E-mail: [email protected] Copyright © 2006 by The Aspen Institute The Aspen Institute One Dupont Circle Washington, D.C. 20036-1133 Published in the United States of America in 2006 by The Aspen Institute. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN # 0-89843-444-0 Pub. No.: 06-001 Suggested citation: Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change. Community Change: Theories, Practice, and Evidence. Edited by Karen Fulbright-Anderson and Patricia Auspos. Washington, D.C.: Aspen Institute, 2006. About the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change he Roundtable on Community Change was established as a forum in Twhich leaders working on some of the country’s most innovative and promising efforts to revitalize poor communities can meet to discuss the lessons that are being learned by community initiatives across the country and to work on common challenges they are facing. Since 1995, the Roundtable has focused on the problems associated with evaluating community-based interventions and has issued several publications exploring various dimensions of evaluation theory, methods, measurement, and analysis. (See www.aspenroundtable.org.) This volume complements that line of work by distilling, from research and ex- perience, the theories of change that appear to be guiding community change efforts and synthesizing evidence about the effectiveness of these efforts. The Roundtable’s other work includes projects to: increase understanding of the ways in which structural racism affects poor communities and the pros- pects for revitalization and improvements in the life chances of their residents; examine the contribution of community-building strategies to improving social, economic, and civic outcomes for children, youth, families, and neighborhoods; build the capacity of local governments and communities to work more effectively toward common goals; and explore and apply innovative learning methodologies to community-building topics. Acknowledgments e are indebted to the numerous people who assisted us in the develop- Wment and production of this volume. The editors thank, first and fore- most, the authors who contributed their work to this volume. We are grateful as well to those who served as project advisors, providing early guidance for this work. Accordingly, we would like to extend our thanks to: Prudence Brown, Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago; Phillip Clay, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; James Connell, Institute for Research and Reform in Education; Claudia Coulton, Case Western Reserve University; Ronald Register, Murtis H. Taylor Multi-Service Center; Margaret Beale Spencer, University of Pennsylvania; and Carol Weiss, Harvard University. Bennett Harrison, who is now deceased, was also an important member of this advisory group. In addition, we benefited from the guidance and financial support provided by Bonnie Politz of the Center for Youth Development and Policy Research at the Academy for Educational Development. Support from the following philanthropies made this volume possible: The Annie E. Casey Foundation, The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The F. B. Heron Foundation, The W. K. Kellogg Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation. Developing and producing this volume would not have been possible without the financial support of these organizations, and for this we are grateful. The editors would like to thank Julia Vitullo-Martin for her insightful and conscientious editing and Thebe Street in Minneapolis for creating the design and layout and overseeing the printing of this volume. We would also like to thank Marcus Weiss from the Economic Develop- ment Assistance Consortium and colleagues from the Institute for Education and Social Policy at New York University for their insightful reviews. Roundtable staff members Andrea A. Anderson and Anne Kubisch were helpful to us in many ways as we produced this volume. We thank them for their assistance and for being such good colleagues. Finally, the Aspen Roundtable staff benefits from incredible leadership and support. The co- chairs of the Roundtable—Harold Richman and Lisbeth Schorr—and our Roundtable members provide inspiration, wisdom, and guidance on all of the staff’s activities. The authors and editors are solely responsible for the accuracy of the state- ments and interpretations contained within this publication. Such interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views of the contributing foundations. Table of Contents INTRODUCTION Community Change: Implications for Complex Community Initiatives Karen Fulbright-a nder son 9 PART 1 | PROMOTING CHANGE THROUGH COMMUNITY LEVEL INTERVENTIONS Chapter 1 | Social Capital and Community Building a ndr e a a. a nderson and sharon Milligan 21 Chapter 2 | Promoting Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods: What Research Tells Us about Intervention a Mie M. schucK a nd dennis p. rosenbauM 61 Chapter 3 | Improving a Neighborhood’s Residential Environment: Pathways to Physical and Social Change Melv in l a pr a de a nd patr ici a auspos 141 Chapter 4 | Community Economic Development and Community Change héctor cor dero-guzM á n a nd patr ici a auspos 195 PART 2 | PROMOTING CHANGE THROUGH COMMUNITY BASED INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY INTERVENTIONS Chapter 5 | Community Action and Youth Development: What Can Be Done and How Can We Measure Progress? Michell e a lberti g a Mbone 269 Chapter 6 | Theories of Change for Community Interventions in Education g ail Meister 323 Chapter 7 | Social Service Systems Reform in Poor Neighborhoods: What We Know and What We Need to Find Out ch a r l es bru ner 387 Chapter 8 | Community-Focused Efforts to Increase Employment: Strategies, Theories of Change, Outcomes, and Measures patr ici a auspos 483 Contributors 552 INTRODUCTION Community Change: Implications for Complex Community Initiatives Karen Fulbright-a nder son iterature on urban community dynamics is replete with examinations of Lthe process of decline. This focus on decline is evident in early and contem- porary examinations of community life. As Phillip Clay observed in 1979: The last ten years have witnessed an unprecedented analysis of the problems of the cities. The maladies of urban areas have been trumpeted by politicians, the media, and professional and academic journals. This de- preciation is associated with the widespread and continuing loss of middle- class households, the exodus of industry and consequent loss of jobs, the decline of many public institutions, and the growing loss of confidence in city neighborhoods as desirable places to live.1 Nearly twenty years later, Dennis Keating and Janet Smith noted little change in the focus of urban theorists, researchers and observers: Theories of neighborhood change identify conditions that alter the status quo of urban neighborhoods. Particular attention has been given to the physical, institutional, and social factors that cause neighborhoods to be- come unstable or to decline.2 Page 10 | Karen Fulbright-Anderson These examinations of the causes of inner-city blight have been helpful in rais- ing awareness about the severity of the problems faced by poor communities, but do little to inform efforts to promote positive community change. The abil- ity of residents, community-based organizations, funders, and policymakers to strengthen communities could surely be facilitated by information about interventions and factors that promote positive change in communities and foster community resilience. A growing body of literature has begun to document encouraging lessons about interventions and factors that contribute to positive changes in communities. While the evidence base is, for the most part, neither strong nor robust enough to provide definitive answers to some of the most vexing questions about community change, the literature points to promising areas that deserve sustained, careful attention. The purpose of this volume is to pull such insights together in one place. The volume includes reviews of literature from the following programmatic areas, hereafter referred to as strands—community building, neighborhood safe- ty, education, employment, economic development, housing, youth development, and social services. The authors draw on the experiences of a range of community-based efforts to bring about positive community change, including formal organizations, such as community development corporations and comprehensive community initiatives, and less formal associations of community residents. The comprehensive community initiatives (CCIs) to which the

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