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Developing Two-Generation Approaches in Communities: Final Report from Family-Centered Community Change

July 14, 2021

The Annie E. Casey Foundation launched its Family-Centered Community Change (FCCC) initiative with a goal of integrating two-generation strategies into existing place-based community initiatives. The innovative effort, which ran from 2012 to 2019, focused on supporting local partners in three neighborhoods with low economic resources: Buffalo, New York; Columbus, Ohio; and San Antonio, Texas.Over the course of the initiative, the sites worked to promote the healthy development and academic success of children while simultaneously delivering adult services focused on parenting and financial stability. In year three, the community partners also received training and technical assistance — provided by the Casey Foundation — aimed at enhancing racial and ethnic equity and inclusion.The Urban Institute conducted a formative evaluation of this effort, which included: 1) qualitative data collection from interviews and focus groups with partner staff and participants; 2) descriptive analysis of program data; and 3) a cost study.

Promoting Healthy Families and Communities for Boys and Young Men of Color

February 4, 2015

This report talks about boys and young men of color who are at risk for poor health and developmental outcomes beginning at birth and persisting through childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. As a result of household poverty and residence in segregated neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage, they are disproportionately bombarded by environmental threats -- often without the benefits of supportive systems of prevention, protection, and care. This exposure to chronic stress undermines cognitive, social-emotional, and regulatory human development as well as the immune system. The parents of boys and young men of color are similarly affected, which affects boys directly in utero and interferes with their parents' abilities to promote their health and development and to protect them from harm as they mature.

Helping Low-Income Families Manage Childhood Asthma: Solutions for Healthcare & Beyond

April 2, 2014

Asthma is the most common childhood chronic illness, affecting more than seven million children nationwide. Managing chronic illness in a child is challenging for any family. Among the challenges is constant fear of an acute episode, a complex regimen of medications given daily or many times each day, frequent changes in prescriptions or dosages, coordinating multiple healthcare providers, and helping a child have as "normal" and active a childhood as his/her condition allows. Low-income children of color bear a heavier asthma burden than their white or more affluent peers. Those low-income children who live in urban areas such as Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York are particularly vulnerable. Families with limited resources struggle to provide their children with asthma the support that these children need.

CHA Residents and the Plan for Transformation

January 1, 2013

This series of policy briefs presents findings from more than a decade of research on the people who lived in Chicago Housing Authority properties when the agencylaunched its Plan for Transformation in October 1999. The ongoing, multiyear effort sought to improve resident well-being by renovating or demolishing decaying public housing properties and replacing them with new, mixed-income development.

How Chicago's Public Housing Transformation Can Inform Federal Policy

January 1, 2013

Chicago has long dominated the national discourse about urban poverty in general and public housing in particular, and the policy changes that affect Chicago tend to have repercussions for national policy. The Chicago Housing Authority's1999 Plan for Transformation sought to undo the mistakes of decades of federal policy that had left Chicago and too many other cities blighted by large, decaying public housing properties. Although other cities like Atlanta and San Francisco followed suit, the CHA's Plan was the first -- and largest -- citywide public housing transformation initiative, representing an enormous investment of public and private resources.In many respects, the CHA's story shows the potential of public housing transformation: attractive new developments, better quality of life for most residents, and a better-functioning housing authority. However, the CHA's story also raises cautions about the limitations and the potential risks of this bold -- and costly -- approach and about what else it will take to help address the problems of deep poverty that keep too many public housing families from moving toward self-sufficiency.

Improving the Lives of Public Housing's Most Vulnerable Families

January 1, 2013

The CHA's ambitious Plan for Transformation necessitated relocating thousands of vulnerable families. Although the conditions residents were living in at the outset were deplorable, the relocation was involuntary and was a major disruption to theirlives.Many residents were extremely vulnerable, suffering from serious mental and physical health problems that could be exacerbated by major stress.The CHA had littleexperience in providing effective relocation services and even less in providing wraparound case management that could help stabilize residents' lives and help them move toward self-sufficiency. Given these circumstances, there were reasons for serious concern about how residents would fare and whether they might end up even worse off as a result of relocation.Our ten-yearstudy of CHA families shows that most residents are better off overall as a result of the Plan for Transformation; they live in higher-quality housing in neighborhoods that are generally safer and offer a bette rquality of life for them and their children. However, incorporating intensive supportive services for the most vulnerable public housing residents produces additional gains.Our findings indicate positive outcomes on a range of adult health and employment-related outcomes that are key to improving family stability.

Public Housing Transformation and Crime: Making the Case for Responsible Relocation

April 4, 2012

Examines the outcomes of relocating public-housing residents to private-market housing while distressed, high-crime developments were demolished and replaced with mixed-income communities, including the impact on crime rates in their new neighborhoods.

Planning the Housing Opportunity and Services Together Demonstration: Challenges and Lessons Learned

February 28, 2012

Offers insights from designing and implementing a project to address barriers to self-sufficiency among low-income parents, such as poor health and low education levels, while integrating services for children and youth in public and mixed-income housing.

After Wells: Where Are the Residents Now?

August 10, 2010

Examines the types of housing residents of distressed public housing relocated to -- the private market, mixed-income or traditional public housing, or unassisted -- and neighborhood crime, poverty, and joblessness data, as well as satisfaction.

The CHA's Plan for Transformation: How Have Residents Fared?

August 10, 2010

Summarizes findings from studies on how relocation from distressed public housing changed former residents' quality of life, including living conditions, safety, poverty, employment, health, well-being of children, and satisfaction. Outlines implications.

Escaping the Hidden War: Safety Is the Biggest Gain for CHA Families

August 10, 2010

Examines changes in residents' sense of safety and exposure to drugs, gangs, and violence after moving from distressed public housing to mixed-income or rehabilitated developments or the private market. Makes recommendations for sustaining gains.

The Health Crisis for CHA Families

August 10, 2010

Outlines a study of long-term trends in the health status of Chicago's distressed public housing residents, including chronic illness, disability, mortality rates, and anxiety. Examines limited effects of moving to better housing and their implications.