The populations served by the six Community Development Investments organizations reflect the country’s racial and ethnic diversity and range from some with many recent immigrants and refugees to those who have been on the same land for all recorded history. There is wide diversity across each organization’s mission, economic context, sizes, and staff racial and ethnic backgrounds. They are located in six regions of the United States; four in large cities and two in rural areas, one of those being a Native American pueblo and the other a vast territory of more than 30 counties. Some are in very hot real estate markets and others in neighborhoods that have been systematically disinvested but might soon take off.

These non-arts organizations are all grappling with local equity issues such as pressures of displacement; demographic, economic, and physical shifts; and questions around the preservation and development of identity. Learn more about each of these organizations and their communities, their approaches to arts and culture, and the range of projects they’ve pursued to support their core work.

For the December 2020 relaunch of this site, we have added links to descriptions of other arts-based strategies in communities around the country.