Kresge Foundation awards $400,000 grant to PUSH Buffalo to advance community development through arts and culture
The Kresge Foundation has awarded People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH Buffalo) a $400,000 grant as part of a new Creative Placemaking initiative, Building and Supporting Equitable Development (BASED), which seeks to advance community development through arts and culture.
This $8 million effort is led by Kresge’s Arts & Culture Program as part of its ongoing work to position culture and creativity as drivers of more just communities.
The primary goal of BASED is to develop a platform for continued learning of both leading practitioners and Kresge staff around emerging field priorities, such as strengthening racial equity and inclusion best practices within the community development sector.
“While there are a substantial number of community development organizations that have successfully integrated Creative Placemaking into their broader neighborhood strategies, many of these organizations are facing staffing, policy and funding hurdles,” said Regina R. Smith, Managing Director of the Kresge Arts & Culture Program. “BASED aims to strengthen these organizations and expand efforts that integrate Creative Placemaking into place-based work happening in cities across the United States.”
This is a three-year pilot program that will be implemented in two phases. Twenty grantees total will participate in BASED. For 2019, 11 grantees have been selected. The second cohort of nine grantees will be selected and announced in 2020.
BASED will enable PUSH Buffalo to connect with these local innovators around a shared agenda for equitable Creative Placemaking.
“PUSH Buffalo is grateful to the Kresge Foundation Arts and Culture program for this bold initiative and to be in the first cohort of the BASED awardees. It is an honor to be in the company of such a distinguished set of organizations. We are also excited to partner with Ujima Company and Buffalo Arts Studio who are part of the Buffalo team to advance community development through arts and culture in ways that deepen the impact of our community engagement, racial equity and inclusion,” said Rahwa Ghirmatzion, Executive Director of PUSH Buffalo.
PUSH Buffalo is a member-led community organization located on the West Side of Buffalo. Since its founding nearly fifteen years ago, PUSH has advanced a place-based strategy that has prioritized community control of resources, organizing and public engagement, and investments in affordable housing, stormwater management, green jobs, weatherization, and other sustainability initiatives. PUSH’s strategy centers the needs, local knowledge, and lived experiences of frontline communities and sets out to build cultural, economic, and political power and intergenerational community wealth. With frontline communities across Buffalo under threat from gentrification and displacement, PUSH works with partners to find innovative ways to protect and preserve cultural institutions and traditions that are threatened by new profit-driven development patterns affecting whole neighborhoods like the West Side.
The 2019 grantees have been awarded $400,000 over two years: The foundation has named the following organizations as BASED grantees:
- Asian Economic Development Association, St. Paul, MN
- Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, New York, NY
- Broadway Housing Communities, New York, NY
- Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, Boston, MA
- East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, Oakland, CA
- Inner-City Muslim Action Network, Chicago, IL
- North Limestone CDC, Lexington, KY
- People’s Emergency Center, Philadelphia, PA
- People United for Sustainable Housing, Buffalo, NY
- Project Row Houses, Houston, TX
- The Enterprise Center, Philadelphia, PA
“We are pleased to announce this first BASED cohort,” Smith added. “This group of grantees has a history of partnering with and centering residents in equitably restoring the social, economic and physical wellbeing their neighborhoods.”
About The Kresge Foundation:
The Kresge Foundation was founded in 1924 to promote human progress. Today, Kresge fulfills that mission by building and strengthening pathways to opportunity for low-income people in America’s cities, seeking to dismantle structural and systemic barriers to equality and justice. Using a full array of grant, loan, and other investment tools, Kresge invests more than $160 million annually to foster economic and social change. For more information visit kresge.org.
About PUSH Buffalo:
PUSH Buffalo mobilizes residents to create strong neighborhoods with quality, affordable housing, expand local hiring opportunities, and advance economic justice in Buffalo.