Dear All-In Cities Partners,

After a year that challenged many of us in a myriad of ways, I am excited to be reconnected with you all in this year already so full of hope and opportunity. As we explore that space of opportunity, it’s the perfect time to reignite the All-In Cities newsletter as a place for this network to share space, policy ideas, and strategy with one another as we continue to give our best to our local communities.

This past year affirmed one of the most fundamental values of PolicyLink, that local residents and local leaders hold the solutions to the nation’s most intractable problems. Last year also crystallized for the PolicyLink team that one of the greatest, most enduring contributions our organization can make is to strengthen connections and align policy agendas across places and actors in the equity ecosystem.

To that end, we want to offer this space in 2021 as a platform to elevate the lessons you’ve learned from local responses to the pandemic, new commitments to racial equity, and efforts to ensure an equitable economic recovery. We want to share the innovations you’ve tested on the ground. We invite you to offer reflections, promising models and campaigns, and use this platform as a way to exchange ideas and accelerate impact from city to city.

We appreciate all too well just how much we all are juggling, so don’t worry, there are no deadlines. Next newsletter will feature a thoughtful reflection by janera solomon of Pittsburgh, so you have some time to think about what story, reflection, or work you might want to share with the network in a future newsletter. 

Here’s to a promising year that centers local leadership and the solutions necessary to design a democracy and economy that works for all!

In Solidarity, 

Ashleigh Gardere
Executive Vice President, PolicyLink

10 Lessons from the All-In Pittsburgh Initiative
Tracey Ross—former All-In Cities Director turned PolicyLink Director of Federal Policy and Narrative Change—shares 10 Lessons from All-In Pittsburgh. Through support from The Heinz Endowments, PolicyLink was invited to join Neighborhood Allies, Urban Innovation21, the UrbanKind Institute, and their partners to put forth an equitable development vision and strategy to enable low-wealth Pittsburghers to participate in and benefit from the region’s economic transformation. This brief captures 10 lessons from All-In Pittsburgh’s transformative early work which have served as a model for PolicyLink partnerships with other cities. 

Sharing Lessons from the All-In Cities Anti-Displacement Policy Network
Cities thrive when all people can live in safe, stable, affordable homes in healthy neighborhoods connected to opportunities without fear of displacement. In 2018, PolicyLink created the All-In Cities Anti-Displacement Policy Network (ADPN), a national network of more than 65 leaders from 11 cities to work together to fight displacement and build thriving cities. Over the course of a year, the network participants developed anti-displacement strategies for their cities while building the power, voice, and capacity of communities directly impacted by displacement in defining challenges and advancing solutions. Read our latest report to learn about what the cities accomplished and lessons for the field.