Purpose Built Communities

We often talk about success as moving up and moving on. A better job. A bigger home. A new neighborhood.

But what if your neighborhood could grow with you?

At Purpose Built Communities®, we believe people should have the freedom to choose where they live. But greater opportunity shouldn’t require leaving behind the relationships, memories, and sense of belonging that make a place home.
A thriving neighborhood can offer more choices at every stage of life, giving people the opportunity to put down roots and keep growing.

Our latest article challenges us to think differently about what progress and mobility can look like.

Read more, and tell us what you think: What would it mean for a neighborhood to grow with you?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-success-didnt-mean-leaving-purposebuiltcs-68dze/

Neighborhoods grow and change over years, not days. Lasting transformation comes from neighbors, families, local leaders, and partners staying committed to a shared vision. Together, they building trust, learning along the way, and investing in what communities need to thrive.

At Purpose Built Communities®, we have the privilege of seeing that long-term commitment at work across our Network every day.

As the seasons change, we’re celebrating the people who keep showing up, season after season, to build stronger neighborhoods and brighter futures.

What a night in Wilmington!

Last night, we joined REACH Riverside, a Purpose Built Communities® Network Member, in celebrating 80 years of Kingswood and the people who have made this community such a special place.

As part of the celebration, we toured Ernest O. Webster Montessori Academy, part of the Kingswood community, and saw firsthand the work taking shape across the neighborhood.

The evening brought together residents, funders, sponsors, staff, and leaders from across the Purpose Built Network to recognize this milestone and the incredible work that has gone into bringing the Kingswood Community Center to life.

Our CEO, Carol Naughton, joined the celebration and shared remarks, while REACH Riverside CEO Logan Herring brought his energy and vision to the evening.

Congratulations to the entire REACH Riverside team. You have so much to be proud of, and we were thrilled to celebrate alongside you.

Strong neighborhoods are places where opportunity is within reach.

We’re excited to see Purpose Built Communities® Network Member REACH Riverside featured in the Healthcare Anchor Network’s latest newsletter as part of its new WorkAdvance initiative. In partnership with Nemours Children’s Health, REACH Riverside will help connect Wilmington residents to training, support, and pathways to high-demand healthcare careers.

It’s a powerful example of what can happen when trusted neighborhood organizations and major local employers work together to create pathways to economic mobility.

Read more from Healthcare Anchor Network about the initiative and the partners making it possible:

HAN supports 7 members to connect local residents to high-demand careers HAN is thrilled to be able to provide grant funding and technical assistance to support seven of its members over a 2-year period to implement impact workforce strategies, due the generous support of the Ballmer Group. The WorkAdvance model is a nationally recognized, research-validated, results-dri...

Neighborhood transformation doesn’t happen overnight. Swipe for more →

Hispanic Heritage Month begins today, and with it comes an opportunity to celebrate the people, cultures, and traditions that help give neighborhoods their distinct identity.

You can see heritage woven throughout a neighborhood: in the businesses that become gathering places, the food and music shared across generations, the celebrations that bring people together, the stories held by longtime residents, and the traditions families carry forward.

At Purpose Built Communities®, we believe strengthening neighborhoods also means honoring the heritage that has shaped them. Transformation should recognize the history already written there, value the people who have long called a neighborhood home, and create opportunities for residents and families to carry their cultures, traditions, and stories into the future.

Because heritage isn’t separate from a neighborhood’s future. It helps shape it.

As Hispanic Heritage Month begins, we celebrate Hispanic and Latino residents, families, entrepreneurs, educators, artists, and community leaders whose contributions continue to make neighborhoods across the country places of connection, belonging, and opportunity.

Here’s to a month of celebrating the people and stories that make every neighborhood uniquely its own!

What if neighborhood transformation didn’t mean choosing between investment and belonging?

Travis Williams, President and CEO of Purpose Built Communities Network Member LIFT JAX, calls the alternative withintrification: transformation guided from within the community, with residents helping shape what comes next.

It’s an idea we talk about often at Purpose Built Communities because strengthening a neighborhood should mean creating greater opportunity for the people who already call it home, while honoring the history, culture, and connections that make that neighborhood distinct.

In Jacksonville’s Historic Eastside, known as OutEast, LIFT JAX is putting that idea into action. From preserving beloved neighborhood landmarks to helping secure meaningful community benefits as investment grows around the Historic Eastside, their work shows what’s possible when residents remain at the center of change.

Travis puts it simply: lasting transformation starts with trust, local leadership, and a community having a meaningful voice in its own future.

Watch his powerful conversation about withintrification and what it can teach all of us about building prosperity without losing belonging.

Watch the video to hear Travis explain withintrification and what it looks like in action in Jacksonville’s Historic Eastside: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNCnh3LpXtc

How to build 'better' without gentrifying | Travis Williams | TEDxJacksonville What if the opposite of gentrification wasn't stagnation — but some...

What does it take to keep a neighborhood’s shared vision moving forward?

It takes someone focused on the whole picture.

In the Purpose Built model, that’s the role of a Community Quarterback Organization, or CQO. These local organizations bring residents and partners together around a shared vision for their neighborhood, coordinate efforts across sectors, and stay focused on long-term transformation.

That matters because the pieces that help a neighborhood thrive are connected. Housing can influence health. Education can shape economic opportunity.

Community wellness can strengthen the conditions children and families need to flourish.

CQOs help connect those efforts so that they’re working toward a shared goal rather than operating in isolation.

Every neighborhood is different, so every CQO’s work looks a little different, too. What they share is a long-term commitment to their neighborhood, its residents, and creating pathways to prosperity.

Purpose Built Communities® supports a national Network of these local leaders as they learn from one another, share what works, and advance transformation in their communities.

Because lasting neighborhood transformation takes more than individual programs. It takes people committed to connecting the work.

Some of the most important work in a neighborhood never makes the headlines.

It’s the meeting that runs long because residents have more to say.

The partnership that takes months to build.

The local leader making one more call, opening one more door, and connecting one more person to the right resource.

Neighborhood transformation is made up of thousands of moments like these.

We’re proud to work alongside Community Quarterback Organizations across the country doing the steady, local work that turns a shared vision into lasting change.

Here’s to the work you don’t always see, but communities feel every day.

What does it take to prevent violence before it happens?

Join The EdRedesign Lab for a virtual screening of the latest documentary from DREAM ON and meet the people behind Orlando Kidz Zones and Peace Orlando — two efforts reducing community violence and improving the lives of children and families facing the greatest challenges.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A featuring experts in neighborhood transformation and community violence intervention, including representatives from the University of Chicago Crime Lab, Harlem Children's Zone, and The EdRedesign Lab.

📅 September 11, 2026
⏰ 10:30–11:45 a.m. ET
💻 Virtual via Zoom

This event is free and open to the public. Registration is required: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jJeiuCbxQFWhv4-nxWeYfw