This is the fourth in a series of briefs that describe the changes, insights, and lessons when arts and cultural strategies are deployed in service of comprehensive community development and planning. During ArtPlace America's Community Development Investments initiative, six participating organizations which had not previously focused on the arts developed creative placemaking projects and cultural strategies that could help them more effectively achieve their missions. PolicyLink conducted a research and documentation project to measure the progress, immediate outcomes, and impacts of those projects.

This brief examines how artist researchers in theater, film, photography, and other disciplines brought different questions, sensibilities, and methods to bear to creatively document the CDI initiative as a whole and to advance the goals of the individual site teams. Download the brief.

Cities thrive when all people can live in safe, stable, affordable homes in healthy neighborhoods connected to opportunities without fear of displacement. In 2018, PolicyLink created the All-In Cities Anti-Displacement Policy Network (ADPN), a national network of more than 65 leaders from 11 cities to work together to fight displacement and build thriving cities. Over the course of a year, the network participants developed anti-displacement strategies for their cities while building the power, voice, and capacity of communities directly impacted by displacement in defining challenges and advancing solutions. This report provides a summary of the network — what we did, outcomes, and emerging lessons for the field. It is written to help funders, policy advocates, and others who lead networks refine approaches so we can more effectively address displacement and build prosperous cities for all. Download the brief.

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, massive job losses, rapidly evolving business models, and accelerating technological change are dramatically reshaping the US economy. This report, produced in partnership with Burning Glass Technologies and the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, provides a comprehensive analysis of long-standing racial gaps in labor market outcomes, the economic impacts of Covid-19, and the racial equity implications of automation. It provides an in-depth analysis of disaggregated equity indicators and labor market dynamics, finding that White workers are 50 percent more likely than workers of color to hold good jobs and that eliminating racial inequities in income could boost the US economy by $2.3 trillion a year. In addition to detailed data analysis on the state of racial inequities in jobs and opportunity, the report offers a bold framework for action to advance workforce equity, where racial income gaps have been eliminated, all jobs are good jobs, and everyone who wants to work has access to family-supporting employment.

Media: How Companies Can Help Conquer Racial Inequity and Create Future Work for Black Americans (Black Enterprise) 

Webinar Recording: Race and the Work of the Future: Advancing Workforce Equity

The outbreak of Covid-19 has shone a spotlight on the persistent inequities facing people of color across the nation, including those in New Mexico. The economic shock caused by the pandemic occurred at a time when low-wage workers in New Mexico were already struggling with flat paychecks and exorbitant costs for basic needs like housing and health care. Just like the coronavirus crisis itself, the economic crisis is hitting workers of color in New Mexico, particularly Native American workers, the hardest as they experience more layoffs and greater financial hardship than White workers. As New Mexico state leaders begin to address the widespread economic impact of Covid-19, they should capitalize on this moment to create both immediate and long-term opportunities for low-income people and people of color. Download the brief to learn more about the ways workers of color in San Juan County have been impacted by the coronavirus, and how investing in workforce training should be a core element of New Mexico’s COVID-19 recovery strategy.

This is the fourth in a series of applied research agendas, composed of four components, that when taken as a group, form a blueprint for generating and translating knowledge about arts, culture, and equitable development in 2020. The goal of the series is to encourage the examination of these various issues and see that the importance of arts and culture strategies is recognized by potential researchers and those who can use that research. This agenda explores the impact of immigrant food agents in low-income communities of color and identifies their unique characteristics, challenges, and strengths, which may not be currently served by existing healthy food access and food system programs.

Applied Research Agenda series:

1. The Impact of Arts and Culture on Relocation Assistance Programs
2. The Impact of Arts and Culture Strategies on Streetscape Design and Mobility Projects
3. Equitable Business Improvement Districts as a Creative Placemaking Model
4. Immigrant Food Systems and Redefining “Healthy” and “Local” Food 

This is the third in a series of applied research agendas, composed of four components, that when taken as a group, form a blueprint for generating and translating knowledge about arts, culture, and equitable development in 2020. The goal of the series is to encourage the examination of these various issues and see that the importance of arts and culture strategies is recognized by potential researchers and those who can use that research. This agenda explores how “value capture strategies” can be used to make urban creative placemaking projects such as those led by Business Improvement Districts more equitable.

Applied Research Agenda series:

1. The Impact of Arts and Culture on Relocation Assistance Programs
2. The Impact of Arts and Culture Strategies on Streetscape Design and Mobility Projects
3. Equitable Business Improvement Districts as a Creative Placemaking Model
4. Immigrant Food Systems and Redefining “Healthy” and “Local” Food 

This is the second in a series of applied research agendas, composed of four components, that when taken as a group, form a blueprint for generating and translating knowledge about arts, culture, and equitable development in 2020. The goal of the series is to encourage the examination of these various issues and see that the importance of arts and culture strategies is recognized by potential researchers and those who can use that research. This agenda explores, through recent innovative cases, the impact of a community’s creative and cultural approaches to street design standards on mobility and safety. 

Applied Research Agenda series:

1. The Impact of Arts and Culture on Relocation Assistance Programs
2. The Impact of Arts and Culture Strategies on Streetscape Design and Mobility Projects
3. Equitable Business Improvement Districts as a Creative Placemaking Model
4. Immigrant Food Systems and Redefining “Healthy” and “Local” Food 

This is the first in a series of applied research agendas, composed of four components, that when taken as a group, form a blueprint for generating and translating knowledge about arts, culture, and equitable development in 2020. The goal of the series is to encourage the examination of these various issues and see that the importance of arts and culture strategies is recognized by potential researchers and those who can use that research. This agenda explores the role of arts and culture in increasing the rate of successful return and the social cohesion of residents who were temporarily displaced due to redevelopment. 

Applied Research Agenda series:

1. The Impact of Arts and Culture on Relocation Assistance Programs
2. The Impact of Arts and Culture Strategies on Streetscape Design and Mobility Projects
3. Equitable Business Improvement Districts as a Creative Placemaking Model
4. Immigrant Food Systems and Redefining “Healthy” and “Local” Food 

This is one of two research reports drafted to inform, refocus, and help prioritize housing policy dialogues in two key jurisdictions: the city of Philadelphia and the state of California. Most of the housing reform initiatives to date in these two areas of focus have failed to acknowledge the ways that racially biased policymaking has contributed to the current housing crisis and, as a result, have perpetuated the racialized nature of how we got here. To better understand how such disparities have continued to persist for so long, these reports examine the history of the housing systems in each jurisdiction and outline a housing justice agenda that mitigates the threat of displacement, preserves communities, and increases access to neighborhoods of opportunity.

• Download Facing History, Uprooting Inequality: A Path to Housing Justice in California
• Download The Case for Housing Justice in Philadelphia