In 2010, we made the decision to use a portion of our discretionary grant funds to support deliberate and strategic initiatives that target critical needs within our community. Our first effort to support this new approach has been through our involvement and funding of the Promise Neighborhood Project.

Promise neighborhoods are built upon the idea that education is the most important way to end generational poverty. The Project focuses on children and doing whatever it takes to help them be academically successful – to finish high school and be prepared either to get a good job or succeed in post-secondary education. Promise neighborhoods seek to concentrate and focus strategic academic, social, and economic supports in order to reach its goals. This approach is meant to coordinate community assets in strategic ways so that all the participating youth will succeed. Focusing on a neighborhood allows that to happen and provides a model that can then be expanded across the community. 

As a pilot project, initial efforts have been focused on Lincoln Elementary School and its surrounding neighborhood. One of the guiding philosophies used in the Project is to do things with people, not for people. In support of this principle, a community organizer is conducting listening campaigns with the residents. The goal of these efforts is to encourage individuals to work together to improve the economic condition of their neighborhood. Efforts are also being undertaken at the school, with the principal and teachers, to create a school design team to help develop the school as the “center of the neighborhood.”

Springfield Promise funding partners include:
» City of Springfield
» Clark County Combined Health District
» Job and Family Services of Clark County
» Noonan Foundation
» Springfield City Schools
» Springfield Foundation
» United Way of Clark, Champaign and Madison Counties