National Affordable Housing Organization Links Community Development with School Improvement, Calls for Policy Changes

BALTIMORE, Nov. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Enterprise Community Partners announced today it is calling for a policy agenda to explore the benefits of integrating school improvements with community development efforts in distressed inner-city areas. During an education forum at the Enterprise Community Conference in Baltimore, Enterprise and Capital One released Policy Roadmap for Expanding School-Centered Community Revitalization, a report recommending three vital action steps to test and expand this new model for community development.

In early 2007, Enterprise and Capital One commissioned Abt Associates, Inc, a national educational research and consulting firm, to study how community developers coupled neighborhood revitalization with local school improvements in more than 20 neighborhoods nationwide. This recent report, the third in a three-part series, focuses on ways to make the promising model of "school-centered community revitalization" more widespread. Enterprise recommends:

• The federal government provide demonstration grants to 20 sponsors of school-centered community revitalization and rigorously evaluate results;
• State and local governments pilot school-centered community development at a select number of schools; and the
• Philanthropic community play a key role in funding, leading and evaluating efforts of the program

"Capital One has been pleased to support this research on school-centered community revitalization, an emerging strategy which recognizes quality education as a powerful catalyst for community and economic development," said Carolyn Berkowitz, vice president, Community Affairs and president, Capital One Foundation. "By funding both affordable housing and educational improvements, Capital One is actively working to create more integrated strategies to improve distressed communities."

During the Capital One-sponsored forum "Taking School-Centered Community Revitalization to Scale," Enterprise featured Berkowitz, along with Dr. Andres Alonso, CEO of the Baltimore City Public School System, and Sandra Moore, president of Urban Strategies Inc., a nonprofit that develops social and educational services to complement the revitalization of distressed urban communities. The session provided in-depth dialogue on ways community developers can incorporate school improvement into neighborhood revitalization efforts and highlighted how these better performing schools reinforce other neighborhood improvements such as new or rehabilitated affordable housing.

"More than 10 years ago, Enterprise began working in elementary schools in Baltimore's Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood as part of a larger community development effort in the area," said Doris Koo, president and CEO of Enterprise Community Partners. "It is only fitting that we bring leaders in the field of education and community development back to this city to explore a holistic approach to make both schools and communities more successful. Enterprise is hopeful that community developers will use this new model to seek partners to improve local schools to complement their housing development efforts."

The Enterprise Community Conference, "Transforming & Redefining Community Development" is taking place at the Baltimore Waterfront Marriott Hotel until November 21st.

To read Policy Roadmap for Expanding School-Centered Community Revitalization in its entirety go to:

http://www.enterprisecommunity.org/programs/schools_and_communities/. Also available are Reconnecting Schools and Neighborhoods and Community Developer's Guide to Improving Schools in Revitalizing Neighborhoods, the first two reports in the series. Other materials on school-centered revitalization are also available the website.

Enterprise is a leading provider of the development capital and expertise it takes to create decent, affordable homes and rebuild communities. For more than 25 years, Enterprise has pioneered neighborhood solutions through public-private partnerships with financial institutions, governments, community organizations and others that share our vision. Enterprise has raised and invested more than $9 billion in equity, grants and loans to help build or preserve more than 240,000 affordable rental and for-sale homes to create vital communities. Enterprise is currently investing in communities at a rate of $1 billion a year. Visit www.enterprisecommunity.org and www.enterprisecommunity.com to learn more about Enterprise's efforts to build communities and opportunity.

Capital One Financial Corporation (www.capitalone.com) is a financial holding company whose subsidiaries collectively had $98.9 billion in deposits and $147.3 billion in managed loans outstanding as of September 30, 2008. Headquartered in McLean, VA, Capital One has 739 locations primarily in New York, New Jersey, Texas, and Louisiana. It is a diversified bank whose principal subsidiaries, Capital One, N.A. and Capital One Bank (USA), N. A., offer a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients.