The Community Revitalization Fellowship (CRF) is a new learning opportunity from the Center for Community Progress (CCP).
It’s designed to help cohorts of grassroots community leaders revitalize neighborhoods that are struggling with serious challenges related to vacancy, abandonment, and disinvestment.
This rigorous, nine-month fellowship program is a profound, immersive experience. In 2019, CRF will focus on how residents can advocate for and lead community efforts to improve vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties in order to make their neighborhoods safer for everyone.
Six resident leaders from three communities (eighteen people in total) will be selected as Fellows in 2019. They will participate in learning exchanges in each other’s communities that feature a mix of technical and leadership trainings and local neighborhood tours. Fellows will also develop strategies or projects to improve vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties in their neighborhoods to improve safety and support revitalization.
CRF is designed as an opportunity for participating Fellows to:
- Gain knowledge in neighborhood stabilization and revitalization strategies, tools, and systems;
- Lead a strategic and impactful neighborhood revitalization strategy or project;
- Build connections with Fellows both within and across participating communities;
- Strengthen relationships with local organizations, elected officials, and other local leaders; and
- Increase effectiveness of resident-led neighborhood interventions and advocacy.
By participating in CRF, Fellows will be equipped to advocate for and lead change that improves vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties and improve community safety in their own neighborhoods. The Fellowship will also build the capacity of a key institutional partner in each of the communities to provide ongoing local support to the Fellows and their neighborhoods.
Program Highlights:
- 3 Learning Exchanges for Fellows in three cohort communities across the country
- A “Revitalization 101” training for up to 40 residents in each cohort community
- $14,000 to support institutional partners’ community engagement activities
All applications are due by 5:00 p.m. EST on Friday, February 22, 2019.
Photo courtesy of Janell O’Keefe / CCP.