The Community Quarterback Model: A New Approach to Creating Opportunity
Across America, individuals and organizations work tirelessly to create stronger, more resilient communities. They help families find jobs, get to work, stay healthy, and have affordable places to live in safe neighborhoods with good schools. Yet, too often, these groups are working side-by-side, rather than together, to achieve these critical goals.
It is time to work smarter and take a new, more holistic approach to creating economic opportunity. For the past 50 years, the community development field worked to improve the lives of millions of Americans. Along the way, the sector achieved significant scale and professionalism and learned more about what works to effectively support neighborhoods and families. Building on these lessons, the “community quarterback” model, introduced in the book Investing in What Works for America’s Communities, recognizes that partnerships that use resources effectively and identify common ground produce remarkable results.
The quarterback can articulate a vision, marshal funding sources, and align the work of the many partners it takes to execute on a vision. Whether it is doubling high school graduation rates, halving the number of people living in poverty, or making sure all kindergartners arrive at school ready to learn, having a local organization act as a community quarterback can help accelerate the pace of change and move organizations more rapidly toward shared goals.
To share our strong belief in this model, we’ve created The Quarterback Model video to communicate how we can work smarter and more collaboratively to achieve progress for all.
Community Quarterback Model Video
