We Have a Comprehensive Plan

To date, meaningful progress in community transformation has been limited. Individual programs addressing specific challenges lack the kind of comprehensive, integrated, big-picture strategy that is needed to create self-sustaining communities. A program focused on education cannot make a substantial difference on a broad scale when students and their families confront public safety, economic and social challenges daily that cripple the program’s impact.

The Arthur M. Brazier Foundation’s approach is both comprehensive and integrated, addressing the specific interrelated attributes of a self-sustaining community. It is based on building and strengthening four interconnected “pillars” that create the infrastructure a community needs to thrive and become self-sustaining.

In the context of the Foundation’s current work, we provide professional services to assist communities in organizing a convening organization whose focus is the development of comprehensive community capacity, addressing structural issues within the community and presenting a path forward for the community. The convener is central in our approach to community transformation. Indigenous to and knowledgeable about the community, the convener is a vital connector of people, processes and ideas that must work together for the comprehensive plan to succeed. The convener drives strategy, fosters collaboration, ensures inclusion and helps sustain big-picture focus.

The Foundation is able to apply its model in other challenged communities in Chicago.

We will assist communities that express interest in working with us to identify a local convener, and help them build the convener’s capacity to replicate the four pillars model.