Community Change: a Theories, Practice, and Evidence

[Pages:548]Community Change: Theories, Practice, and Evidence

edited By K aren Fulbright-Anderson and Patricia Auspos

Community Change: Theories, Practice, and Evidence

edited By K aren Fulbright-Anderson 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

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Published in the United States of America in 2006 by The Aspen Institute.

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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

The Roundtable on Community Change was established as a forum in which 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 .) This volume complements that line of work by distilling, from research and experience, 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 prospects 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

We are indebted to the numerous people who assisted us in the development and production of this volume. The editors thank, first and foremost, 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 Development 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 cochairs 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 statements 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-Anderson

9

Part 1 | promoting change through community level interventions

Chapter 1 | Social Capital and Community Building

Andrea A. Anderson and Sharon Milligan

21

Chapter 2 | Promoting Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods: What Research Tells Us about Intervention

Am i e M . S c h uc k a n d De n n i s P. R o s e n b au m

61

Chapter 3 | Improving a Neighborhood's Residential Environment: Pathways to Physical and Social Change

Melvin LaPr ade and Patricia Auspos

141

Chapter 4 | Community Economic Development and Community Change

H?ctor Cordero-Guzm?n and Patricia 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?

Michelle Alberti Gambone

269

Chapter 6 | Theories of Change for Community Interventions in Education

Gail Meister

323

Chapter 7 | Social Service Systems Reform in Poor Neighborhoods: What We Know and What We Need to Find Out

Charles Bruner

387

Chapter 8 | Community-Focused Efforts to Increase Employment: Strategies, Theories of Change, Outcomes, and Measures

Patricia Auspos

483

Contributors

552

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