Urban Strategies Council named as winner of the Bank of America's Neighborhood Excellence Award!
Bank of America named Urban Strategies Council a Neighborhood Builder as part of the bank’s Neighborhood Excellence Initiative (NEI). Urban Strategies Council was selected because of its work to increase the earnings, income and assets of low-income families in Oakland and to increase the capacity of low-income residents to advocate for effective policies, programs and practices. Along with one other east bay organization and 17 others from California, Urban Strategies Council will receive $200,000 in unrestricted grant funding and participate in Bank of America’s Neighborhood Excellence Leadership Program® with other nonprofit leaders from 45 communities across the country and London.
“Nonprofits and community leaders are instrumental in providing critical neighborhood services and Bank of America is proud to support their work through the Neighborhood Excellence Initiative and other lending, investing and community development programs that align with our overall corporate social responsibility efforts,” said Janet Lamkin, California President at Bank of America. “Not only does this program recognize some of the truly stand-out organizations and leaders in California, but it also offers valuable unrestricted financial support and professional development opportunities – critical to the long-term success of our communities.”
Urban Strategies Council is a community building support and advocacy organization located in Oakland, California. Founded as a non-profit organization in 1987, the Council’s mission is to eliminate persistent poverty by working with partners to transform low-income neighborhoods into vibrant, healthy communities. The Council maintains three operating programs: economic opportunity (housing, income and asset development, workforce and economic development, community benefits agreements); community safety and justice (prison reentry, violence prevention and community policing); and education excellence (achievement, community engagement and after school programs). The Council also conducts two support programs including research and technology (data warehousing, online GIS/mapping, research and evaluation and access to technology); and community capacity building (tools, program development, training and consulting services for community building initiatives).
The Council is pursuing a number of strategies toward income and asset development for low-income Bay Area residents: Employer-Based Asset Building, Alternative Financial Products, Financial Education and Services, Benefits Screening and Application, Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a Health=Wealth Project, and the Foreclosure Intervention Initiative.
Out of its foreclosure intervention work, the Council developed a partnership with Oakland ACORN to create the Oakland Community Land Trust. The Oakland CLT has been awarded $5.025 million in Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds from the City of Oakland and is working to stabilize Oakland neighborhoods and provide permanently affordable homeownership opportunities for low-income families through the rehabilitation of 100 vacant, foreclosed homes.
Junious Williams, Urban Strategies’ CEO, thanked Bank of America for the award and said, “This award represents a tribute to the hard work of our board, staff and partners. It comes at a particularly important time as we move to intensify and expand our efforts to make sure that the economic recovery does not leave behind the families who were in severe economic distress even before the current recession.”
About the Neighborhood Excellence Initiative
The Bank of America Charitable Foundation’s Neighborhood Excellence Initiative annually recognizes organizations, individuals and students who have shown a commitment to improving their communities. In its sixth year, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation has committed more than $110 million globally to the NEI program since its inception. By the end of 2009, more than 800 leaders from the nonprofit awardees will have participated in the Neighborhood Excellence Leadership Program®, which builds a network of community leaders across the country to share learning and insight in areas including strategic communications, financial management, succession planning, and long-term development. Through NEI, Bank of America has also encouraged community leadership at the grassroots level by recognizing more than 1,200 high school students and 1,200 community leaders over the last six years.
Bank of America Corporate Philanthropy.
Building on a long-standing tradition of investing in the communities it serves, Bank of America this year embarked on a new, ten-year goal to donate $2 billion to nonprofit organizations engaged in improving the health and vitality of their neighborhoods. Funded by Bank of America, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation gave more than $200 million in 2008, making the bank the most generous financial institution in the world and the second largest donor of all U.S. corporations in cash contributions. Bank of America approaches investing through a national strategy called "neighborhood excellence" under which it works with local leaders to identify and meet the most pressing needs of individual communities. Bank associate volunteers contributed more than 900,000 hours in 2008 to enhance the quality of life in their communities nationwide. For more information about Bank of America Corporate Philanthropy, please visit www.bankofamerica.com/foundation.