Louisville’s vibrant network of neighborhoods has long been recognized as an asset to the city’s identity and unique sense of place.
Our work is centered around the people that allows for a community to grow and thrive. We partner hand in hand with residents, young and old, as well as, neighborhood associations, local organizations and businesses to deliver placemaking outcomes based on the assets within and surrounding the neighborhood.
How communities gather, collaborate and create joy help to define a neighborhood’s culture and outcomes. We work with the community to highlight and lift up intersections, alleyways, and gathering spots to increase neighborhood connection, health and safety.
Opportunities of all shapes and sizes are often times right in front of our eyes within a community, and our work helps to shape these opportunities alongside community members through murals designed by artists within the neighborhood to education and training for community leaders and small business owners.
Today many of Louisville’s neighborhoods struggle from decades of disinvestment, exacerbating disparities in economic opportunity, health outcomes, and access to education. Neighborhoods experiencing disinvestment and “zip code disparities” face significant losses in social cohesion, community organization, political voice, and household health and wealth.
When we invest in the social, economic and physical health of our neighborhoods, we can elevate the economic opportunities and security of all its residents. We also begin to undo the trappings of poverty and violence that are symptomatic of long-term neighborhood disinvestment.
Since our founding, Center For Neighborhoods has partnered with engaged residents, neighborhood leaders and neighborhood organizations to implement resident-driven efforts to address challenges in economic development, education, housing, and social equity in disinvested neighborhoods, namely in West and South Louisville.
Slowly and steadily, neighbors become the drivers of the most inclusive and lasting neighborhood change. Center For Neighborhoods intentionally works directly with neighborhood residents and leaders to achieve community development impacts that are comparable to or exceed those of our regional peer cities.
