2022: A Year of Thinking Big, Diving Deeper and Creating Impact

In 2022 Purpose Built Communities formed new partnerships, responded to some tough challenges and most importantly, we supported our amazing Purpose Built Network Members as they achieved significant impact, individually and collectively. Purpose Built Communities believes in the power of community, and you are a part of ours, so thank you. Together we can help create a world in which every person in every neighborhood in every city has access to all the resources and opportunities necessary to thrive now and in the future.

Take a look at what we were able to achieve together in 2022 and what’s on the horizon going forward.
The Purpose Built team offered a range of guidance for this development project, including advising REACH Riverside on what to advocate for within Delaware’s Qualified Allocation Plan, which guides the state’s distribution of LIHTC.
These new distinctions reflect the hard work and strong partnerships among Network Members Seventy Five North in Omaha, Northside Development Group in Spartanburg, their respective school districts and local partners and Purpose Built Communities.
Slutty Vegan founder and CEO Pinky Cole chose Woodlawn because of the momentum happening in Woodlawn’s central business district. Forty other local Black-owned businesses participated in the Block Party, sharing excitement and making connections across the neighborhood.
To help, Growing Together called on the expertise of fellow Network Member Focused Community Strategies in historic South Atlanta, which launched and runs its own CDFI, FCS Community Finance.
Holland & Knight, Purpose Built’s policy partner, provided strategic technical assistance – helping Boston-Thurmond United make the case and win critical funding from Winston-Salem’s city council.
The convening brought together over 70 leaders from across the country for the first time since 2019.
The group connected for a day of connection, planning and learning. Purpose Built Communities facilitated the conversation and will serve as convener in the months ahead as a state-wide effort takes hold.
The briefing allowed Network Members to learn more about U.S. DOT’s priorities and funding opportunities and provided a platform for Network Members’ on-the-ground experiences and expertise to influence federal perspective and policy.
For example, the Georgia Power Foundation's $3 million grant includes just over $1.4 million to Georgia-based Network Members to address education inequity and enhance early childhood care and education for families in the State of Georgia.
The project is nearing completion, and in early 2023, Purpose Built will work with the Network to develop and release a messaging guide based on that research. The guide will help Network Members, Purpose Built and field partners integrate the new asset-based framing recommendations intentionally and consistently, leading to a meaningful, positive narrative shift.
The Truist Foundation Racial Equity Ambassadors program is part of a larger mission at Purpose Built to change conditions and culture in our society by embedding racial equity into our model and committing to action in the short and long term.
Several Network Members have already incorporated this into their work via sustainable housing strategies, storm water management and other green infrastructure projects.

Residents move into brand-new, beautiful homes

REACH Riverside and Wilmington’s Riverside community celebrated the grand opening of Imani Village, the first milestone of the multi-phase community-led neighborhood redevelopment.

Watch a video of move-in day

Strong partnerships drive academic success

Howard Kennedy Elementary School in the Highlander neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska and Cleveland Academy of Leadership in the Northside neighborhood of Spartanburg, South Carolina improved test scores enough to move off each state’s priority improvement school list.

Black-owned businesses strengthen community vibrancy

Network Member Woodlawn United welcomed popular Atlanta-based restaurant Slutty Vegan to the neighborhood, the chain’s first restaurant outside of Georgia.

Read about the grand opening

Community-based financing builds prosperity, community ownership and civic power

Growing Together worked with a collective of Latino business leaders to raise the start-up support to launch Avanzando Juntos, dedicated to advancing the success and ensuring the inclusion of Tulsa’s Latino business community.

Learn more about Avanzando Juntos

Public funding sets foundation for long-term neighborhood prosperity

Network Member Boston-Thurmond United was awarded nearly $3 million in ARPA funding from the City of Winston-Salem.

Funding will be used for operating, programming and capital needs, as well as land acquisition.

2022 Network Leadership Convening strengthens the Purpose Built Network

Co-hosted by Purpose Built and Atlanta-based Network Members East Lake Foundation, Focused Community Strategies and Grove Park Foundation, this convening created the opportunity to reunite, reflect and re-envision how the Network can work better together.

Read more about the Leadership Convening

Regional coalition paves the way for accelerated impact

Florida-based Network Members LIFT Orlando, Northend RISE in West Palm Beach and South City Foundation in Tallahassee – and prospective member LIFT JAX in Jacksonville – committed to working together in the new year across a range of issues including policy, housing, early care and education, and fundraising.

Policy advocacy broadens opportunities for place-based transformation

Over the past year, Purpose Built has helped to expand Network Members’ impact on federal, state and local policy, and better position them and their partners to receive federal funding. Network Members Blueprint 15, Connect Community and Woodlawn United briefed U.S. DOT Senior Advisor Lynda Tran on innovative ways their communities are addressing the negative impacts of past transportation policies.

Grants support innovative work across the Network

Purpose Built Communities received just over $5 million from four funders to be distributed directly to Network Members to support initiatives such as data and impact, housing, education and policy.

Read more about a grant award

Research and Network collaboration improve narrative on race, place, and prosperity

Purpose Built Communities and Network Members Growing Together in Tulsa, Seventy Five North in Omaha and Lift Orlando have been collaborating with Purpose Built and the FrameWorks Institute on a communications research project aimed at identifying more effective strategies for framing resident-centered neighborhood revitalization.

Explore the narrative project

Strategic support deepens racial equity as a core value and critical outcome in this work

Purpose Built is launching the third cohort of the Truist Foundation Racial Equity Ambassadors program, which builds the skills and capacity of Network Members working to make racial equity a core value within their organizations and across the neighborhoods in which they work.

Watch a video about the journey of previous Racial Equity Ambassadors

Climate resilience and environmental justice are becoming critical components of the “community wellness” work of the Purpose Built Model

Purpose Built Communities hosted a conversation between Network Members and John Moon, VP of Climate-Aligned Philanthropy and Partnership Lead at Wells Fargo. Mr. Moon shared how environmental justice solutions should encompass both immediate and long-term mitigation strategies.