Metropolitan Opportunities Initiative

The Ford Foundation and the Greater New Orleans Foundation formed a partnership called the Metropolitan Opportunities Initiative. The work synthesizes the work the Foundation does on a regional level with its community revitalization work at the parish level. The Metropolitan Opportunities Initiative is focused on three core areas: access to affordable housing, metropolitan land-use innovation, and access to economic opportunity. This is a holistic approach to revitalization on a regional scale. The focus is not on one neighborhood or one block, but rather the on the whole 13-parish region we serve.

The Metropolitan Opportunities Program awarded 4 grants in 2011:

The Center for Planning Excellence was awarded a grant to support the CONNECT Coalition which works to educate and advocate along issues of transportation equity across the super region. To read more about CONNECT’s Policy Agenda, click here [pdf]. To learn about the CONNECT Coalition partners, click here [pdf].

Nonprofit Knowledge Works received a grant to provide funding to increase the organizational capacity of the Greater New Orleans Data Center as a data partner with Success Measures and CFED.

Congress for the New Urbanism to support their work on the Claiborne Corridor and the intersection of the Lafitte Greenway to conduct a study to discuss quality of life and other concerns regarding the elevated sections of I-10.

Corporation for Enterprise Development to support the creation of a Local Assets & Opportunity Profile for New Orleans.