R.I. communities face crime, poverty and other woes in hopes of winning Boston Fed support

On The RISe: The East Providence Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting boat tours to show residents the city from the water. The Bascule Bridge, which once connected East Providence to the East Side of Providence by rail, can be seen. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
On The RISe: The East Providence Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting boat tours to show residents the city from the water. The Bascule Bridge, which once connected East Providence to the East Side of Providence by rail, can be seen. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Disadvantaged neighborhoods, crime-ridden streets, a racial divide splitting a city into two and high unemployment rates among racial minorities: They are all problems Rhode Island communities say they are ready to tackle, with the help of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Working Cities Challenge.

The project has convinced private, public, nonprofit and philanthropic leaders in a handful of Rhode Island municipalities to take a look in the mirror and come face to face with some of the less-flattering characteristics of their communities.

“We are really focused on getting cities and towns to think differently,” said Armeather Gibbs, director of the Working Cities Challenge in Rhode Island.

The Working Cities Challenge initiative is designed to promote economic growth in New England’s low-income communities and is currently underway in Rhode Island. Gibbs is working with seven competing communities – Central Falls, Cranston, East Providence, Newport, Pawtucket, Providence and Westerly – to come up with cross-sector solutions to improve the livelihoods of residents with low incomes and achieve maximum employment. The Boston Fed originally identified 13 municipalities with qualifying demographics. All besides Burrillville and Johnston applied. A judging committee reviewed the applications and selected the seven communities, which are competing for up to three $300,000 to $500,000 grants.

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The initiative began in Massachusetts, where from 2008 to 2011 the Boston Fed worked with Springfield leaders to examine whether economic resurgence was possible in a post-industrial city after “years of population and economic decline,” according to the Boston Fed. The lens was applied to 25 similar cities nationwide, and the Boston Fed concluded “resurgence resulted from the ability of leaders in those cities to collaborate across sectors around a long-term vision for their success.”

With that in mind, the Boston Fed formed the competition, and three years ago successfully launched the first Working Cities Challenge. Six winning Massachusetts communities split $1.8 million in grant money. That may not sound like much money for what are often decades-old economic and social issues highlighted in the process, but the grants are designed to leverage additional funding.

The strategy appears to be working to some degree in Massachusetts. The Boston Fed estimates the first challenge has since helped spur $5.6 million in follow-on investment.

The initiative, unique to New England, was expanded into Connecticut and Rhode Island, where there are a number of postindustrial communities that fit the Working Cities Challenge mission.

Private-sector involvement is considered critical for the long-term success of these projects. And while there are a number of organizations that advocate on behalf of businesses that are involved in Rhode Island, individual businesses are noticeably lacking.

The same business void is also noticeable in Massachusetts, where much of the follow-on investment has come from public and philanthropic sources, according to Working Cities Director Tamar Kotelchuck at the Boston Fed. She says it’s typical for businesses to come to the table when plans are clearer and measurable.

“We’ve always expected private-sector involvement to grow over time,” Kotelchuck said.

Jessica Andors, executive director of Lawrence Community Works, heads the ongoing Working Cities Challenge effort in that one-time mill community. Lawrence is one of the competition’s first winning cities in Massachusetts. She says private-sector capital support has been limited, though increased employment opportunities as a result of the project have helped. The Lawrence team has designed a Family Resource Center, aimed at increasing parent income by 15 percent in the Lawrence Public School System over a 10-year period. Three years into the process, Andors says the biggest challenge hasn’t been about leveraging capital – although she admits it’s not flooding in – but rather the vastness of changing deeply ingrained systemic issues in a relatively short amount of time.

“The biggest challenge is that the problems we’re working on are … deep and intractable. It’s not a small thing to address poverty, workforce development, youth employment or immigration entrepreneurship,” she said. “Those are incredibly difficult systemic issues, and even when you have a lot of good will, and people at the table … I don’t think it’s a three-year project, it’s not a five-year project. I think it’s probably a 20-year project.”

Each of the seven competing Rhode Island communities has received $15,000 grants for planning. The next step is to work with the Boston Fed – and other interested stakeholders – to develop a plan. Final applications are due in early 2017, and Gibbs anticipates three communities will receive $300,000 to $500,000 grants.

The funding – which does not come from the Boston Fed, but rather partnering institutions – would go toward the winning ideas that focus on improving the economic well-being of residents with low incomes and advancing the economic health of each community.

“To provide the opportunity to have good-paying jobs impacts so many other things besides people [with low incomes],” said Peter Asen, director of partnerships and development for Providence. “It’s related to crime, health and educational outcomes.” •

Read about the communities competing in the Working Cities Challenge HERE.

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