Community Change: Lessons from Making Connections

Making Connections was the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s signature place-based, community-change initiative of the 2000s, focused on the framework of family strengthening and working through a comprehensive community development model.

The foundation started Making Connections in 22 places, focusing eventually on first 10, then seven sites. The initiative ran for more than 10 years and spent more than $500 million.

This 2013 report gives an overview of the program’s history and impact—including statistics on two key program goals, increasing earnings and income, and preparing children for school.

A section on how to build on the lessons from Making Connections explores ideas such as focusing on two-generation, place-based change, recognizing the unique, specific challenges of each community, and understand the complexity of managing and measuring community change.

"Community Change: Lessons from Making Connections"