Urban Institute researchers spoke with community organizations in Washington, DC, to learn about their creative approaches to summer programming that would address their traditional challenges, summer learning loss and gun violence, and those exacerbated by the pandemic, such as food access and the digital divide.
The Greater Washington Community Foundation’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund is the largest of its kind in the region. We highlight the foundation’s visionary commitment to action during the COVID-19 pandemic, sharing lessons that can guide future philanthropic efforts in addressing a large-scale crisis.
The pandemic has driven nonprofits to adapt their services and data collection. A convening of staff from more than 50 DC-area nonprofits offers lessons on how they are using new survey data to help increase client supports, prioritize the most urgent data and focus on outputs over outcomes.
Physical displacement is just one way Black Latines have been marginalized and stripped of political and economic power. Urban’s Sonia Torres Rodríguez explores this phenomenon with oral historian Manuel Mendez. Learn more about reversing and preventing cultural displacement.
More cities are using common application and centralized lottery systems for their public prekindergarten programs. Researchers examine these systems in DC and conclude they can provide the basis for evaluating impact and offering a deeper understanding of public preschool.
Last summer marked the first time a chamber of Congress passed a DC statehood bill. Urban’s Peter Tatian talks with Bo Shuff, executive director of DC Vote, to explore the current prospects for statehood and its implications for improving equity for the district’s 706,000 residents.
