This summer, New Rules is launching the first phase of a long-term project called the Northside Vitality Project. The project is guided by the belief that communities know best what they need and will develop most effectively when they have ownership of the resources to to drive the development that they need. This kind of ownership can exist within the context of a community capital fund, that is, a community owned and controlled fund whose purpose is to put ownership and self-determination in the hands of the community by giving them the ability to direct capital to where they feel it is most needed. Eventually, new Rules hopes to establish a mechanism like this on the Northside, but first we need to understand where the community is now.
To begin this process, our summer intern, Charles Wallace-Thomas from Northeastern University, is launching the first phase of the Northside Vitality Project- the Northside Vitality Survey. The most direct measure of a community’s self-determination lies in assessing its economic ecology: how and where residents spend their money, what businesses excite them, and what residents feel their community needs to thrive. The Northside Vitality Survey is a pilot study and community engagement exercise designed to capture such a snapshot of the Northside. We have two goals: to understand how capital flows into, within, and out of the Northside and to assess how Northsiders feel about their relationship with businesses and organizations present in their community. The project will culminate with a report that, empirically and with the narratives of Northsiders, demonstrates the need for a more self-determinant Northside economy and outlines how a community controlled capital fund can address that need.
We need your help and want to hear your voice!
Take the Northside Vitality Survey!
