The Integration Initiative began in 2010 with the promise of transforming the lives of low-income people and the communities in which they live in cities across the country. The site partners in The Integration Initiative (TII) took a different approach to community development by building cross-sector tables and combining philanthropic grants with capital investments. The sites aimed to achieve their results not by delivering individual programs, but instead focused on changing the underlying systems that produced poor outcomes for the low-income people in their communities.
Living Cities is proud to release its evaluation report on TII’s first three years of work. The report is an extensive look at the successes achieved and challenges faced by each site. It outlines what it takes to alter the way government, nonprofit and business leaders work together to strengthen communities. It provides lessons learned for funders and practitioners on how to dramatically improve outcomes for low-income people in America’s cities.
The release of this evaluation report is an opportunity for those involved in the work to reflect on their biggest lessons learned. We have posted excerpts from interviews with our TII Site Directors from Detroit, Baltimore, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Newark in the Collective Impact Forum’s resource library. Watch these videos to learn from seasoned collective impact practitioners about what it takes to collaborate across sectors to improve low-income communities.
Below is one of those videos, an interview with Monique Baptiste-Good, Project Director for Newark’s Strong, Healthy Communities Initiative. She discusses the need for enduring patience through constantly changing circumstances, the importance of strengthening relationships with partners and how to support communities through service leadership.
Watch her video below, and read the full report on the first three years of TII.
