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The Democratic Merit Project This project has received generous support from Public Interest Projects – Fulfilling the Dream Fund Overview The Democratic Merit Project challenges institutions to operationalize “merit” in a way that promotes the conditions necessary for a thriving democracy and to define and use merit as an incentive system to reward those actions that a society values. One principal objective of the project is t ...

The Kirwan Institute: Supporting Equity in the HUS Sustainable Communities Initiative In June 2010, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT), released a Notice of Funding Availability for a Regional Planning for Sustainable Development grant. These HUD sustainability grants represent an unprecedented infusion of ...

Real Estate-Owned (REO) Initiative The Kirwan Institute is working with the Poverty & Race Research Action Council and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights to expand fair housing opportunities for low income families by advocating the rental of government-owned foreclosed properties in higher-opportunity neighborhoods. For more information on the initiative, see this summary on PRRAC’s website: Cincinnati, Ohio ( opportunity map ) Columbus, Ohio ...

Racial Equity The Institute utilizes the community of opportunity model to explore the intersection between marginalization and opportunity for specific racial populations. The following are recent projects and case studies exploring the intersection of race, equity and opportunity. The State of Black Ohio Equity for Marginalized Children in Knoxville, TN Cleveland Race & Regionalism Initiative Cleveland Minority Business Development African American ...

Race and Cognition The Kirwan Institute examines how the form and content of communications influence the way in which racialized messages are received and processed; working to create a communications strategy that illuminates our linked fate. We also examine the processes by which attitudes and ideas about race impact and mediate the relationship between race and opportunity and how these effects can be mitigated. FEATURED PROJECTS & PRESENTA ...

Housing Policy Housing, in particular its location, is the primary mechanism for accessing opportunity in our society. Where you live is more important than what you live in. Housing location determines the quality of local public services, such as schools, the degree of access to employment and transportation, and the degree of public safety. Currently, most affordable housing in our metropolitan regions is disconnected from op ...

Community Revitalization The Kirwan Institute has worked on a number of initiatives which identify opportunities and challenges to neighborhood and community revitalization, while promoting policies that support the resurgence of these communities. The Institute promotes a model of neighborhood revitalization with the goal of improving neighborhoods while assuring the communities remain neighborhoods of choice that are accessible to all re ...

Building Healthy Communities of Opportunity Health is more than health care. It not only reflects personal choices about healthy habits, or access to primary care, but is significantly impacted by where one lives. Social factors like poverty, unemployment, housing, education, and the food system collectively exert an equally important, maybe even greater, impact on health. Although access to health care services and indi ...