Programs

Sustainable Growth:

Promoting inclusive, mixed-income communities in a metropolitan region where planned growth checks urban sprawl by encouraging transit oriented development and wise stewardship of our environmental resources.

Equitable Development:

Promoting a democratic citizen participation and land-use planning process that benefits local communities, not just private interests. Producing a “double bottom line” for neighborhood residents and businesses.When tax dollars are used for development, that development should lift people out of poverty.

Community Benefit Agreements:

Changing the “Rules of the Development Game” by making urban redevelopment more accountable to the public. Delivering commitments for living wage jobs, local community hiring, access to transit, environmental improvements, community service centers, affordable housing, and community involvement in pre-development planning.

Racial and Economic Justice:

Addressing racial and class disparities by making strategic investments in our communities. Linking healthy neighborhoods to environmental justice advocacy for cleaner air, land, and water. Requiring that publicly subsidized development promotes minority contracting, creates good jobs for local residents of color, and prevents displacement due to gentrification.

Building Community-Driven Coalitions

The Alliance has a ten-year history of building successful coalitions and issue campaigns that leverage the efforts of individual organizations and result in tangible public policy reforms.  The Alliance is adept at laying the ground work for multi-sector collaboration between environmental, land-use, transit, faith-based, new immigrant, social justice, communities of color, and labor groups. 

For example, a key goal of our work is to build an expanded, diverse network of people and organizations which identify themselves as part of a smart growth "community," to attract unions, organizations of color, and other locally under-represented groups.  The Alliance has been expanding and redefining Smart Growth in ways which begin to reflect the values and concerns of community-based groups and their leaders.

Building Organizing Capacity

Over the last few years, we've also focused on expanding the capacity of our allies to be successful in their work: by sharing information, building research and organizing capacity, analyzing new trends and data, employing new technology and tools, promoting organizer trainings and strategies, convening coalition campaigns and supporting collective action that leads to policy change.  The Alliance delivers organizing resources, capacity and technical assistance to our allies and partner groups. Our objective is to be a support vehicle:

• For individual organizations to build their power.
• For organizing practitioners to build their knowledge of, and capacity to wage, successful organizing initiatives.
• For building multiple coalitional initiatives and launching coordinated campaigns among these groups.