ANCHOR INSTITUTIONS

Partner Organizations

• THE AMERICAN ASSEMBLY
• ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY'S PHOENIX URBAN RESEARCH LABORATORY
• BANK OF AMERICA CHARITABLE FOUNDATION
• BARBARA AND EDWARD NETTER CENTER FOR COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
• CEOS FOR CITIES
• THE LINCOLN INSTITUTE OF LAND POLICY
• PARTNERS FOR LIVABLE COMMUNITIES
• POLICYLINK
• ANNIE E. CASEY FOUNDATION'S NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT

To return to Anchors Initiative page, please click here.

The American Assembly

The American Assembly is the national, non-partisan public affairs forum illuminating issues of public policy by commissioning research and publications, sponsoring meetings, and issuing reports, books, and other literature. The American Assembly has undertaken a project on “Restoring Prosperity in Older Industrial Areas.” It is convening an Assembly in Hershey, Pennsylvania on November 8-11, 2007 to investigate and report on emerging economic development strategies for weak market cities, aimed at meeting a major need as cities and metropolitan areas seek to find their place in the changing global economy. Attendees, who are thought leaders in urban affairs, will refine the work produced in the The American Assembly’s 1997 “Community Capitalism” Assembly, categorizing cities and their metropolitan areas as weak market and strong market places. The Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program is leading a consortium that includes Smart Growth America, the National Housing Institute, PolicyLink, and other national organizations in advancing thinking and action to improve weak market cities. The American Assembly to be held in 2007 will build on this work to define effective economic development strategies for weak market cities. The role of anchor institutions in weak market cities will be among the discussion topics. For more information see: www.americanassembly.org.

to top

 

Arizona State University’s Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory

From February 14 - 16, 2008, the Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory, a design/research center of the College of Design at Arizona State University, will host a conference on the theme of “University as Civic Partner.” Cosponsored by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the conference will build upon and extend our knowledge of a vital development of recent years: how universities are moving from enclave to engagement, from citadel to institutional citizen. Academic, civic, and community leaders from North America and Europe will analyze this development in terms of place-making, policy, and program, with the goal of deepening our understanding of how universities can participate in city-building and nurture civic culture. For more information see: http://design.asu.edu/purl/PURLconf.shtml.

to top

 

Bank of America Charitable Foundation

The Foundation supports institutions that anchor their communities, promoting economic activity, creating jobs and attracting and retaining residents. These institutions, integral to the health and sustainability of our communities, include major stakeholders such as hospitals, colleges and universities, and cultural facilities. Their impact across large populations makes them a vital component in promoting stabilizing and developing neighborhoods. By the end of 2006, Bank of America had more than $36 million in commitments to anchor institutions.
For example, the Foundation has supported:

• The Philadelphia Zoo - $1 million grant to fund capital improvements for Big Cat Falls.
• Children’s Hospital Boston - $1 million grant to fund the Kidvestment Partnership that brings critical
  community health programs to at-risk children in Boston’s neighborhoods.
• Rutgers University - $1 million grant to help fund the university’s initiative to transform its historic College Avenue campus.
• Virginia Performing Arts Foundation - $500,000 grant to fund the building a new performing arts center.
• Los Angeles Trade-Technical College - $1 million grant to prepare unemployed and underemployed residents for skilled jobs in the information- and service-based economy.
• White Memorial Medical Center – $1 million grant to provide employment assistance and education to low-income women and minorities.
• The Newark Museum - $1 million grant to expand the museum’s facilities and improve visitor services for families.

For more information about Bank of America and the Bank of America Charitable Foundation see: www.bankofamerica.com/foundation.

to top

 

Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships, University of Pennsylvania: Toolkit Development and Dissemination Strategy For Anchor Institutions

The Annie E. Casey Foundation has provided support to multiple higher education institutions for engagement with their local communities. As part of this effort, the Casey Foundation provided funds to the University of Pennsylvania for publication of a case study on its “West Philadelphia Initiatives,” As a next step, the Casey Foundation is providing training and technical assistance to various sites to help them leverage resources and create and develop partnerships. The Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships at Penn will create and disseminate a toolkit on Penn’s work in West Philadelphia to assist this training effort. Penn’s role as an anchor institution in West Philadelphia, as well as in Philadelphia and the wider region, has lessons not only for institutions of higher education, but also for corporations and nonprofits that function as core economic anchors. The toolkit will highlight strategies that could be adapted by other types of anchor institutions. For more information about the Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnership, see: www.upenn.edu/ccp.

to top

 

CEOs for Cities: City Anchors Learning Network

CEOs for Cities is continuing the landmark work it began five years ago with Dr. Michael Porter on Leveraging Colleges and Universities for Urban Economic Revitalization. Most recently, the organization convened a meeting of urban leaders in May, 2007, in San Jose, to ask the question, “Can the definition of anchor institution be expanded to include libraries, performing arts centers, museums, parks, community colleges, and other similar institutions?” And if so, what are their assets and how can they be put to work on behalf of cities? These discussions were the basis for a recently released white paper, titled City Anchors, which is available at www.ceosforcities.org/rethink/research. Now, CEOs for Cities will translate this research into action by forming the City Anchors Learning Network, an 18-month engagement of cross-city learning, collaboration and local impact. Beginning in November, 2007, in Detroit, participants will apply concepts emerging from our discussion in San Jose, as well as in the work recently completed by Charles Leadbeater for CEOs for Cities (Remixing Cities: Strategy for the City 2.0). Initiatives in each participating city will have a goal of achieving real local gains and refining ideas and strategies that can then be shared with our national network. For more information about this and other CEOs for Cities Learning Networks see www.ceosforcities.org or contact Kristian Buschmann at kbuschmann@ceosforcities.org, or 312 553 4616.

to top

 

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s Department of Economic and Community Development aspires to be a preeminent multi-disciplinary center for practice improvement, research, and advanced study related to the role of land in economic and community development. Our mission is to explore how land affects economic and community development in cities and regions and how economic and community development conditions affect land. Our central interest is to improve the practice of economic and community development. Our strategy to reach these goals with our City, Land and The University project begins with research. Our central question for this work is: how do institutions of higher education work with the government sector, the business sector and the community or civic sector to mutually define and shape individual and collective interests in regard to planning and community development? An important part of our dissemination strategy is to reach leaders in all of these sectors to support their work to increase capacity to engage collaboratively in multi-stakeholder problem solving. For more information on City, Land and The University project and its collaboration with leaders at the Great Cities Institute, University of Illinois-Chicago and the University of Baltimore, see: www.lincolninst.edu/subcenters/clu.

to top

 

Partners for Livable Communities

Partners has found over its thirty years that traditional institutions – libraries, churches, universities, community colleges, museums, parks, medical centers, arts and humanities agencies, and more – can take on new roles of social service and economic development. To help maximize this role, Partners is launching a new multi-year initiative of working with the professional associations of a variety of key urban institutions under the banner of “Institutions as Fulcrums of Change.” Using an asset-based community development model, Partners will challenge these institutions to reposition their role to be a frontline player in issues as diverse as aging in place, youth development, distressed neighborhoods, wellness, and more. The first of these efforts will be a program in partnership with the Asset-Based Community Development Institute to train library and museum professionals, their board members, and elected officials in an asset-based framework for addressing key community issues. In concert with professional organizations for all of these institutions, Partners will also begin soliciting laboratory institutions and communities to explore the unique value that these institutions hold. Partners looks forward to working with many of the conference participants here. For more information see www.livable.com or contact Bob McNulty at bmcnulty@livable.com or 202-887-5990 to discuss how we might work together.

to top

 

PolicyLink

PolicyLink is a national research and action institute advancing economic and social equity. It will be releasing several reports that reference anchor institutions. In late October, it will issue the results of a joint project with Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Committee (GPUAC) on workforce housing, in which anchor institutions figure prominently. In the next few months it will release several reports on revitalization in older core cities with some discussion of anchor institutions, with a particular emphasis on smaller cities. In mid-2008, PolicyLink will complete a three-year evaluation of the Kellogg Foundation’s Engaged Institutions Cluster, grants to four state universities (Minnesota, Penn State, UTEP, and UC Santa Cruz) for not only innovative partnerships for child and youth development, but for the universities’ overall strategies for and commitment to re-structuring to promote community engagement at all levels. Reports will be available in the next few months. For more information see: www.policylink.org.

to top

 

Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Neighborhood Development

The Foundation’s investments reflect efforts to foster a new, more comprehensive approach to redevelopment that links human capital development with physical development thereby producing more positive outcomes for low-income children and families. Casey’s Neighborhood Development approach builds upon and expands the Foundation’s existing efforts to improve the well-being of low-income children, families, and communities. By adding new core competencies and building relationships with others in the fields of community, urban, and regional development, Neighborhood Development enhances Casey’s capacity to promote an approach that pays attention not only to physical development but to improving opportunities, choices, and outcomes for residents of poor communities.
Part of Casey’s Neighborhood Development Strategic Agenda is promoting engagement by anchor institutions — universities, medical centers, corporations, or other entities with deep ties to a community — in the responsible redevelopment and/or revitalization of their communities while reaping economic benefits as a result. By promoting responsible approaches to redevelopment, Casey’s Neighborhood Development portfolio underscores that all participants in the transformation of communities (anchor institutions, as well as developers, public officials, funders, nonprofit organizations, residents) need to think and act in such a manner that all—especially those lacking in power, wealth, resources, and opportunities—can benefit from neighborhood redevelopment activities. For more information see: www.aecf.org.

to top