Platform for Social Impact’s Post

CAPITAL MARKETS DEVELOPMENT: EMPOWERING VILLAGES THROUGH COMMUNITY TRUSTS & DEVELOPMENT COMMITEES Investing in community trusts and restructuring Village Development Committees (VDCs) can unlock transformative economic potential for villages, creating pathways for participation in capital markets and sustainable growth. Community trusts enable villages to hold shares in local and regional projects, securing income streams and long-term stability. By reimagining VDCs as active financial players, communities can take ownership of local development, directly influencing their financial landscape. Community trusts offer benefits that go beyond immediate income, they build resilience and capacity. With ownership stakes in projects, communities gain a revenue stream that can fund local infrastructure, education, healthcare, and other critical needs. This local investment creates jobs, builds skills, and fosters self-sufficiency. Access to capital markets allows VDCs and community trusts to diversify and grow these resources further, opening doors to broader investment opportunities and sustainable economic growth. A Community Development Fund adds another layer of strength, serving as a dedicated pool of capital to finance essential projects and address pressing community needs. These funds can amplify the impact of revenue generated from community trust shares, directing resources toward areas like sustainable agriculture, clean water, housing, SMEs Finance, sports development, healthcare and education initiatives. Managed in alignment with VDCs, a community development fund ensures that financial support remains accessible and tailored to local priorities, empowering communities to shape their futures actively. Through strategic partnerships with businesses and stakeholders, VDCs and community trusts can bridge rural communities with capital markets acess, empowering villages to attract external funding, diversify income streams, and leveraging collective resources for impactful, community-centered projects and building a robust local economy addressing both immediate needs and future ambitions. In the long run, this initiatives could cultivate a thriving local economy, where villages are not just recipients but active participants, reinforcing the importance of community-driven financial empowerment and capital market inclusion. Together, let's champion the integration of community trusts, revitalized VDCs, community development funds and capital market access as pillars of sustainable rural economic transformation and financial empowerment. #CapitalMarketsDevelopment #CommunityEmpowerment #VillageDevelopment #CommunityTrusts #RuralEconomy #CommunityDevelopmentFunds #SustainableGrowth #LocalInvestment #FinancialInclusion

Transit-oriented development plays a significant role in Canada’s housing crisis. While #TOD aims to enhance urban growth, it often leads to reduced housing affordability, displacement of low-income and racialized people, and the loss of local businesses and community spaces. One reason this happens is a lack of coordination between government entities responsible for transit infrastructure and affordable housing. Without recognizing the problem, it’s difficult to advance meaningful solutions. This year, SI Canada worked with many partners in the Hamilton Transit Oriented Affordable Housing (TOAH) Lab, an approach that directly addresses the negative impacts of transit development on Canada’s housing crisis. The Lab is focused on identifying and co-developing financing solutions to preserve existing and create new affordable housing near transit corridors in the City of Hamilton, and to inform the development of similar projects in other municipalities across Canada. These partners include the City Of Hamilton’s Housing Secretariat, Hamilton Community Foundation - Ontario, Canada, Hamilton Community Benefits Network, non-profit housing provider coalition Hamilton is Home Indwell, West End Home Builders' Association and national partners at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) Société canadienne d'hypothèques et de logement(SCHL), Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative (CHEC), Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA), CP Planning and more. Learn more about this collaboration: https://lnkd.in/gxUY-YUb #HousingSolutions #AffordableHousing #SocInn #HamiltonTOAH #TransitOrientedDevelopment #CommunityDevelopment #EquitableDevelopment #InclusiveDevelopment #ETOD Andrea Nemtin (M.S.M.)

The APPG for 'left behind' neighbourhoods has recently published the Sharing Prosperity Report. This provides insight and recommendations centred on enabling long-term, community driven neighbourhood investment, including a call for a Communtiy Wealth Fund. Recommendations include: - A reinvented funding model that targets hyper-local investment at ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods. - Confirm UKSPF funding for the same 7-year period as the EU structural funds it replaces at a minimum. - Build in a ring-fenced capacity-building budget to the communities and place strand. - In the absence of devolution, make community involvement in ‘local partnership groups’ mandatory. Not much to argue with. The Local Multiplier effects would be significant, but can the levels of investment required even scratch the surface, in particular in the vacuum of Local Authority disinvestment. In terms of the UK SPF process, the application windows must be longer to allow for meaningful local consultation. Better still, and aligned to the recommendations; the funding should be devolved within a broad social investment framework, allowing for more local discretion in the way the investment can be utilised and to enable empowerment closest to the point of need. https://lnkd.in/gnHC98Ny #UKSPF #communities #socialinfrastructure #Sheffield

💰🏘️ Demystifying Mindful Regeneration: Social Value Financing 🏫 Social Value Financing is a funding strategy that prioritises positive social impact and inclusivity in urban development projects. This approach focuses on community empowerment, equitable access to resources, and improved quality of life for all residents. ⚡️ A recent application of Social Value Financing in urban development can be seen in the use of Social Impact Bonds (SIBs). For instance, in the UK, the "Fair Chance Fund" SIB was launched to reduce homelessness among young people by providing stable accommodation and support services. Investors provided upfront capital for the project and were repaid based on the success of the program in reducing homelessness. 🌇 Why is Social Value Financing crucial for city redevelopment? By leveraging innovative funding mechanisms like SIBs, cities can drive positive social change, address inequality, and foster inclusive growth. These strategies enable urban development to better serve community needs and support long-term social sustainability. 🧩 Next up: Green Building Certification. We'll discuss certification systems that evaluate and recognise buildings based on their environmental performance, resource efficiency, and positive impacts on human health. #SocialValueFinancing #MindfulRegeneration #InclusiveGrowth #SocialImpactBonds #CommunityInvestment The Mindful Regenerist Christopher Plumley Katharine Lewis Wayne Layton ACMA CGMA

A brilliant new policy short from the APPG for left behind neighbourhoods and Local Trust taking a closer look at the UK shared prosperity fund and whether its actually getting to the places that need the most. I've been really looking forward to this coming out and to talking about its key community-focused recommendations: 1. Target hyper-local investment at ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods 2. Confirm UKSPF funding over the long-term 3. Delegate UKSPF down to the community level 4. Build in a ring-fenced capacity-building budget to the communities and place strand 5. Make community involvement in ‘local partnership groups’ mandatory, in the absence of devolution. https://lnkd.in/e-CNFW9w

A good read on financing housing production.

We are thrilled to share that Rose Urban Green Fund (RUGF) has been awarded $50 Million New Market Tax Credit Allocation for Community and Economic Development Projects. The latest allocation is the sixth award RUGF has received, bringing the total to $255 million. RUGF has deployed just over $197 million nationally into 32 projects including healthcare, education, social services, community-serving retail and quality, accessible job creating projects. RUGF also focuses on projects that finance minority-owned businesses and projects located in states historically receiving fewer NMTC investments.   “As a national Community Development Entity, Rose Urban Green Fund, is committed to financing socially and economically responsible projects whose focus is to provide essential services and economic opportunities to underserved and low-income communities,” said Chuck Perry, Executive Director of the Rose Urban Green Fund. “This new $50 million allocation will help expand our impact. We are proud of the projects made possible by five previous NMTC allocation awards and look forward to continuing our work to benefit communities and neighborhoods across the country.”   The Rose Urban Green Fund has a distinguished track record of supporting developments in distressed, low-income communities that have experienced a lack of investment. The New Market Tax Credit Program, an initiative from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, makes this possible by incentivizing private investment in community and economic development within historically underserved communities.   The Rose Urban Green Fund’s central mission is creating “Communities of Opportunity,” an integrated approach aimed at breaking the cycles of poverty through a purpose-driven investment and development strategy that addresses the need for quality health, education, jobs and job training, healthy food and community serving facilities. About the Rose Urban Green Fund: Rose Urban Green Fund, was founded by Rose Capital in 2009 to address a lack of capital, quality housing, and services in impoverished urban neighborhoods across the United States. Its mission to create "Communities of Opportunity" aims to break the cycle of poverty through integrated investments in housing, health, education, and enterprise. Based in Denver, Colorado RUGF expands Controlling Entity Rose Capital’s low-income housing activities and provides goods and services to low-income communities. Since its inception, RUGF has received over $255 million in New Market Tax Credit allocations, which it has deployed into 32 projects. #NewMarketTaxCredit, #NMTC, #Housing, #Impact, #SocialImpact, #AffordableHousing, #CommunityDevelopment, #EconomicDevelopment, #Colorado, #Denver, #RoseUrbanGreenFund

Social Impact Bonds can accelerate outcomes and catalyse innovation. For many years I have been imagining possibilities of more investment in family restoring, family resilience, and parent personal mentors. A system that works towards wellbeing outcomes for children and families could have core features of: •Organisational structural changes towards centering family resilience work, that prevents child neglect, trauma, and reduces problematic child removal and re-removal. •Making family-restoring practice a distinct expertise within all practitioners that facilitate child-parent and family contact. •Equiping parents who have lived-experience of a family restoration outcome to safely mentor parents who have a child in care. •Paradigmatic change towards individualisation and compatibility of care arrangements for children/young people in care, with emphasis on a child or young person’s self-concept, abilities, preparedness for change, and therapeutic outcomes. •System-wide stigma elimination strategies.

We’re proud to support a range of organisations doing incredible work combating the systems and mechanisms that drive poverty across the UK. Below are just a few of those we invest in 🔽 - Since 2022, we've been supporting BelleVie | B Corp™, a home care provider with a self-managing team approach. The organisation is an accredited Living Wage Employer, paying colleagues for full shifts, including time spent on travel, admin and gaps between visits.   This approach ensures that care workers are not only compensated fairly but also experience improved job satisfaction and wellbeing.   - In 2017, we completed a £500,000 investment in Resonance Limited who provide an effective solution to homelessness.   ❗ Temporary accommodation is not the answer - and this fund's 229 homes have provided quality homes to 580 tenants, including just over 300 children in Bristol, Oxford and Milton Keynes.   Housing partners, such as current partners Developing Housing and Independence, and St Mungo’s, lease the homes from the fund on a long-term and affordable basis, manage the properties, and support the tenants whilst helping them to plan a move into more permanent rented accommodation.    - In 2016 JRF invested 3 million pounds in Fair By Design which sets out to tackle the ‘poverty premium’ – the (on average) £490 more each year paid by poorer people for the same goods and services as people who are better off. Some low-income households can end up paying as much as £2,250 per year extra when high-cost credit is factored in. The fund has made investments in 25 ventures which are developing solutions to the poverty premium. Across all of its venture investments, Fair By Design helped reduce the poverty premium by around £283 million for 2.6 million people in the UK (averaging £99 per person) by the end of 2023. 🌐 Our new social investment page is now live! To find out more about our social investments and more of the organisations we support find the link in comments 👇

The new investment is on top of more than $25 billion the Federal Government has already earmarked for housing over the next decade, including the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, to build 30,000 social and affordable rental homes and the $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator to deliver about 4000 new social homes across the country and the $3 billion New Homes Bonus to incentivise states and territories to build more homes.