The Cooperative Fund of New England  has played a leading role in financing the Northeast’s cooperative food movement. As a CDFI it has served as a financer, lender, and advisor to nearly every food co-op in the area.

Cooperatives differ from traditional businesses in that they are jointly owned by, and operated for the benefit of, the people using their services. A cooperative’s profits are distributed among its members, and decisions are made democratically.

Research Your Community is a new mapping tool available on the Healthy Food Access Portal that can help individuals and organizations better understand the communities in which they are working in to improve access to healthy food.

The tool can also be a valuable resource for your advocacy and fundraising efforts. The grocery landscape is ever changing, and data is one of many ways to paint a picture of a community’s need for healthy food access interventions. This webinar will train users about how to effectively leverage this new tool.

This document, created by the Urban Institute, explores seven steps to align high-quality education with innovations in city and metropolitan planning and development.

This guide contains a set of suggested critical criteria, functions, and guiding questions to use in order to review potential database vendors. These guidelines are intended to be a starting point for community discussions about data systems, and can be altered to reflect the specific needs of a Promise Neighborhood.

This “Peer Learning Tool” is intended to briefly highlight examples of promising solutions for achieving the Promise Neighborhoods results, as well as the competencies needed to implement them effectively and sustain the work over time, that were taken from communities utilizing the Promise Neighborhoods approach who were willing to share their experiences with their colleagues.

The tool is organized in two parts: one including promising practices related to the Promise Neighborhoods results and associated indicators, and another describing efforts to build the competencies necessary to achieve better results and scale the work over time. For a given result area or competency there is an entry that includes a brief description of the efforts of one or more Promise Neighborhoods in that area as well as a contact person who can be reached to learn additional details.

The Cape Fear region in North Carolina is experiencing a demographic transformation characterized by a diversifying younger population and a rapidly growing senior population that is predominantly White. To secure a thriving economy for the decades to come, the region must tap the economic potential of its growing young population. Building education and career pathways for all and ensuring young workers are prepared for the jobs of the future are key strategies for inclusive growth in the region. Download the profile and summary.

Media: Community, Business Leaders Discuss Inequalities and Growth (WilmingtonBiz.com) 

The Pine Ridge reservation, home of Oglala Lakota people, sits within a broader regional economic context whose primary sectors include tourism, agriculture, manufacturing, and retail.1 The Pine Ridge Reservation and the Rapid City Metropolitan area are interdependent economies that, to date, channel many economic benefits off-reservation. This Equity and Opportunity Assessment identifies key strategies to create greater vibrancy and equity in reservation-based economic activity—to increase prosperity and quality of life for both the Oglala Lakota people and the region as a whole.

FY 2012 Healthy Food Financing Initiative Grantees.

FY 2013 Healthy Food Financing Initiative Grantees.