Abstract
This report discusses such a retrospective study and the recognition of possibilities that would have gone undetected with a look at community change only in the short-run. An open-ended exploration of planned and unplanned long-term outcomes, it was conducted a decade or so after a series of projects’ initial funding and at least a few years after funding ended for the initiatives reviewed. The study was not an in-depth, quantitative evaluation, analyzing the achievement of goals that evaluators defined a priori. Instead, it traces qualitatively the history and evolution of three very different kinds of foundation grants in five very different urban settings – Boston, Dayton, Little Rock, Alameda County/Oakland, and Savannah. All five of the projects aimed to foster new, comprehensive change strategies; all five did so, to varying extents. All five aimed to build the communities’ capacity to produce enduring results; again, all five did so, to varying extents. Not all five communities progressed as anticipated, but good and fascinating things did occur and are still happening in each. What we can say with conviction is that the original grant support helped establish a foundation for sustainable change. Each has its own experience and legacy – its own change that abides.