Sponsored content from The Kresge Foundation. Sponsored content policy

A national learning lab is proving that community power can be grown. What it takes are investments in a neighborhood’s entire ecosystem of relationships.

In this sponsored episode from The Kresge Foundation, Erik Takeshita, director of the Culture & Community Power Fund, outlines how arts and culture strengthen communities’ ability to set the policy agenda and ultimately keep control over their neighborhoods’ futures. 

“We define community power as this idea of a community being able to set an agenda, to be able to take steps towards achieving that agenda, and then to be able to defend that agenda when it comes under attack, because it surely will,” says Takeshita.

We follow two C&CPF investments, directed to Memphis and New Orleans, as local leaders build a “community power ecosystem.” 

Justin Merrick, executive director of the Center for Transforming Communities in Memphis, makes the case that “culture is not a decoration.” CTC uses the “Measuring Love” framework to more fully evaluate progress.

Asali DeVan Ecclesiastes, chief executive and equity officer of Ashé Cultural Arts Center in New Orleans, describes a host of programs that center equity in the fight against displacement, calling it an existential threat. 

“If we refuse to be equitable in the city of New Orleans, there will no longer be a city of New Orleans,” says Ecclesiastes. 

This episode is based on a sponsored webinar, “Role of Culture in Building Community Power,” which can be viewed in Next City's webinar library. Listen to the episode below or subscribe to the Next City podcast on Apple, Spotify or Goodpods.

This post was originally published on Next City.