Regional Networks Project

About this grant

The project was created to counteract the polarization and segregation that is occurring in U.S. metropolitan areas as a result of a steady exodus from cities and older suburbs. It works to build community organizations that encompass large metropolitan areas, uniting cities and older suburbs and building coalitions with newer suburbs, rural communities and the environmental community around land use and urban revitalization.Multiyear funding will enable the Gamaliel Foundation to pursue goals that include increasing the capacity of several developed regions to undertake sophisticated regional equity research and analysis; creating metropolitan organizations in three areas; developing training programs for organizers and leaders to support regional and racial equity analysis; forming a set of strategic partners to inform the foundation on issues related to organizing African Americans; and coordinating the work of the strategic partners who have helped guide the metropolitan equity work.Accomplishments during the past two years included assisting organizations in greater Chicago, East St. Louis and Rockford to work together on issued related to school funding equity; helping an organization in Buffalo, New York create an agenda to focus on improved public transportation and tax credits for housing renovation in older communities; and supporting the formation of coalitions of local organizations in greater Cincinnati, Cleveland and Youngstown.