Founding Members

Brookings

Brookings

The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, DC. Our mission is to conduct high-quality, independent research and, based on that research, to provide innovative, practical recommendations that advance three broad goals:

  • Strengthen American democracy;
  • Foster the economic and social welfare, security and opportunity of all Americans and
  • Secure a more open, safe, prosperous and cooperative international system.

Building ONE New Jersey

Building ONE New Jersey is a faith-based, grassroots coalition of groups from throughout New Jersey devoted to the idea that everyone who lives here has a stake in the economic and social well-being of our region, and of all the communities within it, not just his or her own. The existence of distressed and impoverished communities within New Jersey affects all residents, through increased crime, increased taxes, reduced economic growth, and a tendency for blight and poverty to “creep” into other towns. Thus the imperative to work together for the common good derives both from our deeply held values, notably concern for others, and from simple self-interest.

Building One Pennsylvania

Building One PA

Building One Pennsylvania is an emerging statewide coalition of community leaders from diverse sectors – including municipal, school, faith, business, labor and civic – who are joining together to stabilize and revitalize their communities through the direct engagement and mobilization of their fellow citizens. The organization was launched in 2010 when several organizations – including 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, Good Schools Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Council of Churches, Southeastern Pennsylvania First Suburbs Project and YorkCounts – convened a summit that brought together more than 600 leaders from across the state to imagine a more comprehensive, transformative approach to the interrelated problems of population loss, aging infrastructure, concentrated poverty, and inadequate municipal and school services.

Building One Pennsylvania's mission is to build the capacity to take collective action in order to advance an agenda of social inclusion, sustainability and economic growth. 

Innovative Housing Institute

The Innovative Housing Institute promotes providing quality affordable housing in communities throughout the nation, primarily through the policies and practices known as Inclusionary Housing. The Innovative Housing Institute offers a great depth of knowledge and experience in the variety of Inclusionary Housing tools and strategies used in different local jurisdictions and states.

Institute on Race and Poverty

logo for the Institute on race and poverty

The Institute on Race & Poverty (IRP) investigates the ways that policies and practices disproportionately affect people of color and the disadvantaged. A core purpose for IRP’s work is to ensure that people have access to opportunity. Another is to help the places where people live develop in ways that both promote access to opportunity and help maintain regional stability. The Institute is directed by Myron Orfield, associate professor of law at the University of Minnesota Law School.

Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity

Kirwan Institute

The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at the Ohio State University partners with people, communities, and institutions worldwide to think about, talk about, and engage issues of race and ethnicity in ways that create and expand opportunity for all. We envision a society and world that is fair and just for all people, where opportunity is not limited by race, ethnicity, gender, or class, where democratic ideals inform social policy, and where all people recognize and embrace the universal responsibility that each person has for the welfare of every other person.

Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC)

Logo of PRRAC

The Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC) is a civil rights policy organization convened by major civil rights, civil liberties, and anti-poverty groups in 1989-90. PRRAC's primary mission is to help connect advocates with social scientists working on race and poverty issues, and to promote a research-based advocacy strategy on structural inequality issues. PRRAC sponsors social science research, provides technical assistance, and convenes advocates and researchers around particular race and poverty issues.

Southeastern Pennsylvania First Suburbs Project

SEPA First Suburbs Project

The Southeastern Pennsylvania (SEPA) First Suburbs Project is a coalition of community organizations and institutions focused on solving common challenges facing the older, developed suburbs of Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties. These communities share conditions of diminishing economic investment, declining infrastructure, struggling school districts, and social services lagging behind the needs of their residents. Left to solve these problems on a municipal-by-municipal basis, these communities will continue to decline, reducing the quality of life for the Southeastern region of Pennsylvania as a whole.