Five Years of Connecting, Sharing and Elevating
Five years ago, Purpose Built Communities® decided to shift its approach. Rather than serving as the sole source of technical assistance and guidance for its Network Members, it reimagined what partnership could look like. What emerged was a Community of Practice (CoP) model that elevated relationships, fostered peer learning, and embraced collective leadership.
The result? A stronger, smarter, and more self-sustaining network.
Our newly released report, Building Community, Driving Change, charts this journey from 2019 through 2024. Below is a glimpse into the insights, innovations, and outcomes that make this one of the most defining initiatives in Purpose Built’s recent history.
From Individual Coaching to Collective Growth
Before the launch of the CoP, Purpose Built primarily supported its Community Quarterback Organizations through one-on-one coaching. While effective, it limited exposure to shared experiences and didn’t fully tap into the diverse knowledge and creativity within the network. As a shift occurred toward building a connected learning community, we engaged Dr. Naava Frank of Knowledge Communities to support the transition to a CoP model.
By launching the CoP in 2020, we shifted the center of gravity. Rather than everything orbiting around Purpose Built, the network became the constellation, with Purpose Built acting as a weaver, facilitator, guide, and project coordinator.
The Role of Purpose Built: From Coach to Co-Learner
Perhaps the biggest internal shift came within our team learning how to convene rather than instruct, how to facilitate without controlling, and how to lead while listening. With support from experts like Naava Frank and Deidre Glover, our staff grew into new roles as network weavers and knowledge stewards. This cultural shift allowed us to move to being a partner in a reciprocal learning process.
As our internal culture shifted, so did our understanding of how to best support a thriving network. Purpose Built grew into the core roles of a Network Sponsor as defined by June Holley, embracing a dynamic set of responsibilities that strengthen relationships and catalyze collective action.
We leaned into our role as Weavers, intentionally connecting individuals and organizations with shared missions and strengths. As Facilitators, we created spaces, both virtual and in-person, where ideas could flow freely, collaborations could spark, and trust could deepen. As Guardians, we became stewards of the network’s health, reinforcing equity, transparency, and a shared sense of purpose. And as Project Coordinators, we kept the wheels turning, aligning agendas, clarifying roles, and ensuring momentum never stalled.
This evolution wasn’t accidental. It was the result of deep listening, ongoing learning, and a commitment to walking alongside our partners rather than ahead of them. This evolution allowed Community Quarterback Organization leaders and staff to step into the spotlight. Many now plan and lead CoP sessions, shape content, and drive the network’s learning agenda.
With this growth came a deeper commitment to intentional engagement. Purpose Built developed a network engagement strategy to sustain and strengthen the CoP that centers around three core goals: belonging, learning, and action.
Belonging: From Welcoming to Belonging
We knew early that a stronger network required stronger relationships. Membership turnover, common in networks, resulted in many Community Quarterback Organization leaders being new to their roles. Leaders also requested that we create opportunities for their staff to learn alongside peers across the network. We introduced biannual orientations, a Buddy Program, and facilitated peer introductions to ease new members into the fold and ensure long-standing Community Quarterback Organizations remained engaged.
The twice-a-year “Purpose Built Network Essentials” virtual orientation covers Network fundamentals and serves as both a welcome and a rallying point. Designed to energize and inform, the training introduces participants to their role in a national movement for resident-centered neighborhood transformation. It deepens understanding of the Purpose Built model, outlines the resources available through the network, and encourages peer connection from day one.
Building belonging isn’t just about logistics. It’s about culture. Every new connection strengthens the network’s resilience, deepens trust, and accelerates the speed of knowledge transfer.
Learning: Sharing the Tacit and the Tangible
In every community, there is deep wisdom that isn’t found in books or templates. It’s lived, tested, and refined through practice. The CoP created intentional space for Community Quarterback Organization leaders and staff to surface and share this “tacit knowledge.” Through peer exchange visits, job-alike and geographic CoP groups, newsletters, and site-based convenings, we turned conversations into actionable learning.
We’re committed to ongoing development and dissemination of knowledge products that support and guide members, expanding our library of materials. Our centralized online platform, PBCx, and newsletters mean that these lessons live beyond the moment, shared widely across the network and accessible anytime.
Action: Collective Impact, Amplified
With deeper trust and stronger collaboration across the Purpose Built network, meaningful action became not only possible. It became inevitable. As relationships deepened and alignment strengthened, leaders began to move collectively in powerful new ways.
Regional collaboratives like the Atlanta Alliance and Purpose Built Florida emerged as dynamic hubs of joint planning, advocacy, and peer learning. These groups are more than coalitions. They are working laboratories for innovation, where leaders pool strategies, align on goals, and amplify one another’s impact.
Nationally, the momentum is translating into collective and powerful policy advocacy. What started as a modest pilot grew into a full-fledged movement: Hill Day. In 2024, 22 Community Quarterback Organization leaders met with policymakers on Capitol Hill to speak with one voice. These coordinated efforts have helped shape policy conversations, secure funding, and elevate the voice of neighborhood leaders in federal discussions.
This rising tide of action confirmed what we long believed: networked organizations achieve greater outcomes than isolated ones. And now we have the results to prove it, from tangible funding gains to coordinated policy efforts that reflect the lived experiences of the communities we serve.
It’s not just about being louder. It’s about being smarter, more strategic, and more unified. When the network acts together, change scales faster and reaches farther.
From Insight to Innovation: How the Network Shapes Our Evolution
As leaders across the country exchange ideas, ask tough questions, and share what’s working (and what’s not), they help refine and reimagine the Purpose Built model itself. This ongoing knowledge exchange has led to some of the most significant shifts in our work to date.
For example, Where We Thrive, a narrative framework developed in partnership with the FrameWorks Institute, is helping shift the conversation around neighborhood transformation, from focusing on barriers to lifting possibility and shared prosperity. These tools empower Community Quarterback Organizations to measure progress more effectively, tell their stories with confidence and clarity, and advocate for the resources their communities need.
Critically, this co-created knowledge has helped Purpose Built evolve, too. The model itself has been refined to more explicitly reflect what we’ve learned: that lasting neighborhood transformation is rooted in the vision of residents, stewarded by trusted Community Quarterback Organizations, and supported by the resources and expertise we bring to the table. “Economic vitality” now stands as a core component of the model, named and claimed to reflect its central role in community wellbeing.
Simply put, the network isn’t just adapting to the model. The model is adapting to the network.
Looking Ahead: The Future of the CoP
We’re not done. In fact, we’re just getting started.
Over the next five years, we plan to deepen support for local collaboratives, expand PBCx capabilities, and continue to invest in belonging, learning, and collective action across the Network. What began as an experiment has become a guiding force for how we operate. Our Community of Practice places learning in the hands of every Community Quarterback Organization leader and shifts Purpose Built into the role of partner, collaborator, and convener. Together, we’re not just transforming neighborhoods, we’re transforming how transformation happens.
View the full report to see how this shift is shaping the future of neighborhood change.
