The Field School has moved from its rented church space into the revitalized Key School building, creating room to grow beyond its previous 150-student limit. With the new facility, enrollment can increase by up to 240 students, and with the second phase complete, the school has capacity for 400 students. This expansion ensures long-term stability and provides modern learning spaces for families on Chicago’s West Side.

Relocating from the more affluent Oak Park neighborhood to South Austin allows the Field School to better fulfill its mission of serving children who lack equitable access to quality education. At least half of the school’s seats are reserved for families from low-income homes. Currently, 25% of students come from extremely low-income households earning less than $30,000 annually, and the school aims to raise that figure to 30% or more.

The revitalization of the Uptown community has been a focus of the City of Memphis since 2000 when the first HOPE VI grants were awarded to several projects located only a few blocks from the warehouse. However, due in part to the economic recession in the late 2000s, the community remains severely distressed and underinvested.

In 2018, the city engaged stakeholders to help create the Memphis Uptown Community Plan, with goals that included creating neighborhoods with a mix of incomes and ages, protecting affordability for long-term residents, and promoting the development of vibrant community anchors. The American Snuff Factory is identified as a key catalyst for these plans, through its creation of mixed-income housing and by providing commercial space that is compatible with the surrounding neighborhood and offers employment opportunities for area residents. The revitalization of the historic warehouse will

create anestimated 148 construction jobs, all of which will pay a living wage or higher. Many of these positions will be union eligible, readily available to people who face job barriers, and will be open to members of the surrounding community. A minimum of 25% of the construction contracts will be awarded to minority- and women-owned business enterprises.

NTCIC’s New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) investment will allow the revitalized residential space to include at least 31 units that will be income and rent-restricted to community members earning 80% or below the area median income. It will also support reduced rental rates for the Varsity Spirit, which in turn will enable them to add 50 additional jobs and provide additional training opportunities for new and existing employees.

The historic Illinois Alcohol Company Building revitalization will support an estimated 190 construction jobs, nearly all of which will pay a living wage or higher. Once complete, the expanded West Side Bazaar will create and retain 42 accessible jobs and support 60% more businesses annually, growing from 12 tenant spaces to 23 tenant spaces annually.

The larger community spaces will provide access to hard-to-find food and other items important to immigrant cultures to an estimated 120,000 customers annually. Over a five-year period, the Bazaar can be expected to add nearly $34 million to the regional economy, with less than 30% attributed to one-time construction expenditures.

As the new homes for KIPP, PHMC, and CHOP, the Provident Health campus created over 150,000 square feet of direct healthcare space with specialized facilities dedicated to pediatric care. PHMC provides direct case management services to over 850 each year in their new facilities. The revitalized space also houses their Turning Points for Children program, which provides child welfare, family

strengthening and behavioral health services to more than 10,000 individuals each year. By moving to a larger space, CHOP was able to expand its pediatric outpatient behavioral health services, with over 35% of patients qualifying as low-income. The project supports over 1,100 jobs, 450 of which were newly created as a result of the revitalization effort.

The Huntington is a community-centered theatre with strong, proactive goals to expand community participation and inclusion. Once renovated, it intends to increase its annual performances from 150 to 180 at the conclusion of the historic theatre restoration. This increase will also allow for expansion and staff increases in the Huntington’s education, community, and workforce development programs, including an increase to the Huntington Community Membership Initiative (HCMI), a program designed to reduce economic barriers to attending live theatre for those with limited

income. By partnering with 245+ organizations in local neighborhoods, the program provides more than 3,400 low-income patrons with affordable tickets to the best available seats, a multi-departmental theatre apprenticeship program, career pathways partnership program, and award-winning youth arts education initiatives. This project will increase the program’s overall capabilities by 40%. It will also allow for an additional 1,087 youth to be served through one of three annual spoken word programs hosted by Huntington Theatre.

The Findlay Parkside project in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood is creating new and highly desired affordable housing and small business support for entrepreneurs through historic preservation.

The development generated 160 construction and permanent full-time equivalent (FTE) positions, a vast majority of which will pay a living wage or higher and be accessible to those with barriers to entering the workforce.

The Findlay Parkside project will create 51 apartments, with more than 50% of the available housing designated as affordable. The continued development and creation of commercial space surrounding the historic Findlay Market will create new opportunities for existing businesses to grow. A fresh food fulfillment center operated by the Corporation for Findlay Market will connect to and source food from the nearby Findlay Market, expanding access to fresh foods for the community.

The YWCA Wheeling, which has not seen a major upgrade since its initial construction, is poised to make a transformative impact on the program participants, organization employees, and the local community with this renovation.

Construction efforts generated an estimated 67 positions, 85% of which were accessible to those facing barriers to entering the workforce. The renovated facility will enable the YWCA to add 7 new positions in addition to its current staff of 33.

Additionally, the building has new and upgraded systems, including a new elevator which will replace the one that has been in use since 1969, updated lighting and plumbing for better energy efficiency, and a brand new HVAC system. The renovation of the programmatic, residential, and shelter spaces provides an estimated 20% increased capacity by adding 14 rooms that are even more comfortable and inviting for program participants and will enable the YWCA to support an additional 1,200 people each year.

The Cambridge community is once again benefiting from jobs created from within The Packing House. The extensive construction and preservation efforts generated 110 construction jobs, and as the tenant businesses grow in their new spaces, they’ll create and retain a projected 161 permanent jobs. 100% of the construction and permanent positions will be quality, well-paying jobs targeting and supporting the community.

The tenants of the building are dedicated to giving back to the community through various programming and support. The Maryland DHCD operates a Community Engagement Center within the Packing House to host training and certification programs for residents, including holistic health, continuing education in the medical field, farming certifications, and landscaping certifications.

MERGE is focusing on career growth support by operating one of Cambridge, Maryland’s few incubation hubs and shared office space, with a focus on education.

The new collaborative space will support an estimated 50 entrepreneurs each year. Several active MERGE members, such as the Dorchester Foundation, are community-oriented and operate youth employment programs targeting low-income families.

Food entrepreneurs will also benefit from the new space, with Four Eleven Kitchen offering classes, support, and training in its food concept spaces. Four times a year, it will offer six—to eight-week programs for six young chefs (24 annually). The Four Eleven Kitchen will also offer an additional 10–20 food concept production platforms for others looking to try their hand in the kitchen.

All of this and more will take place in the newly renovated Packing House. This historic, 60,000-square-foot industrial warehouse has been awarded LEED Gold certification for meeting high standards in energy efficiency, water conservation, and material reuse. It is projected that the restored Packing House will conserve 148.9 MWh of electricity each year, equivalent to the amount of energy used when burning 120,000 lbs. of coal.

The revitalization of this long-vacant theater for the continued use of TCT will allow them to more than double the number of annual performances to nearly 150, serving almost 170,000 patrons each year. With an active partnership between TCT and Cincinnati public schools, the number of students provided with access to performing arts will also increase by 63%, giving more than 97,000 youth the opportunity to visit the theater annually.

Performances will come with study guides that allow art education to continue in the classroom. Operationally, it costs TCT an average of $30 to put a child in a seat, however, no school ever pays more than $10 per ticket with even deeper discounts for Title 1 schools. Last season, TCT provided over $900,000 in ticket subsidies to schools, which will increase exponentially at the Emery.