Our ability to eliminate health disparities, revitalize deeply struggling inner city neighborhoods and rural towns, and manage the impact of fast growth in other locales, will in great part rest on the capacity of these coalitions. To date, the breadth and impact of this movement to improve the vitality of America's communities has not been widely understood or documented. It falls below the radar screen of most national media. The rare political leader knows how to tap its power. Essays on the historic decline of civic institutions miss the connection with their twenty-first century successors.
Academics struggle to embrace their new metrics and track their social-capital building results.
Traditional institutions are only recently warming to these nontraditional entities' unique ability to get important work done. Civic power brokers are intrigued by the prospect of forming partnerships with resourceful grassroots leaders who understand how to tap local assets, and demonstrate that new ways of working together are essential to addressing the complex issues facing their communities. Across the country, this widespread and diverse array of collaborative local and regional partnerships creatively bridges sector, race, and class division to create measurable impact. They target top community challenges such as public safety and crime, youth development, quality jobs that pay a livable wage, mobility and access, ecosystem protection, affordable and well-designed housing, strengthening families and redesigning local systems of care. They are tackling the vexing issues that no single sector, institution, program or grant can address alone.