How can we help distressed neighborhoods recover from a generation of economic loss and reposition themselves for success in today's economy? While many have proposed solutions to the problems of neighborhoods suffering from economic disinvestment, John Kromer has actually put them to work successfully as Philadelphia's housing director. Part war story, part how-to manual, and part advocacy for more effective public policy, Neighborhood Recovery describes how a blending of public-sector leadership and community initiative can bring success to urban communities. Kromer's framework for neighborhood recovery addresses issues such as - neighborhood strategic planning - home ownership and financing - the role of community-based organizations - public housing - work-readiness and job training for neighborhood residents - housing for homeless people and others with specialized needs - the importance of advocacy in influencing and advancing neighborhood reinvestment policy. Neighborhood Recovery presents a policy approach that cities can use to improve the physical condition of their neighborhoods and help urban residents compete for good jobs in the metropolitan economy. Kromer's experience in Philadelphia reveals challenges and opportunities that can decisively influence the future of neighborhoods in many other American cities.

Great natural disasters are rare, but their aftermath can change the fortunes of a city or region forever. This book and its companion Policy Focus Report identify lessons from different parts of the world to help communities and government leaders better organize for recovery after future disasters. The authors consider the processes and outcomes of community recovery and reconstruction following major disasters in six countries: China, New Zealand, India, Indonesia, Japan, and the United States. Post-disaster reconstruction offers opportunities to improve construction and design standards, renew infrastructure, create new land use arrangements, reinvent economies, and improve governance. If done well, reconstruction can help break the cycle of disaster-related impacts and losses, and improve the resilience of a city or region.

In the devastation that follows a major disaster, there is a need for multiple sectors to unite and devote new resources to support the rebuilding of infrastructure, the provision of health and social services, the restoration of care delivery systems, and other critical recovery needs. In some cases, billions of dollars from public, private and charitable sources are invested to help communities recover. National rhetoric often characterizes these efforts as a "return to normal." But for many American communities, pre-disaster conditions are far from optimal. Large segments of the U.S. population suffer from preventable health problems, experience inequitable access to services, and rely on overburdened health systems. A return to pre-event conditions in such cases may be short-sighted given the high costs - both economic and social - of poor health. Instead, it is important to understand that the disaster recovery process offers a series of unique and valuable opportunities to improve on the status quo. Capitalizing on these opportunities can advance the long-term health, resilience, and sustainability of communities - thereby better preparing them for future challenges. Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters identifies and recommends recovery practices and novel programs most likely to impact overall community public health and contribute to resiliency for future incidents. This book makes the case that disaster recovery should be guided by a healthy community vision, where health considerations are integrated into all aspects of recovery planning before and after a disaster, and funding streams are leveraged in a coordinated manner and applied to health improvement priorities in order to meet human recovery needs and create healthy built and natural environments. The conceptual framework presented in Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters lays the groundwork to achieve this goal and provides operational guidance for multiple sectors involved in community planning and disaster recovery. Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters calls for actions at multiple levels to facilitate recovery strategies that optimize community health. With a shared healthy community vision, strategic planning that prioritizes health, and coordinated implementation, disaster recovery can result in a communities that are healthier, more livable places for current and future generations to grow and thrive - communities that are better prepared for future adversities.

In cities around the world, planning and health experts are beginning to understand the role of social and environmental conditions that lead to trauma. By respecting the lived experience of those who were most impacted by harms, some cities have developed innovative solutions for urban trauma. In Cities for Life, public health expert Jason Corburn shares lessons from three of these cities: Richmond, California; Medellín, Colombia; and Nairobi, Kenya. Corburn draws from his work with citizens, activists, and decision-makers in these cities over a ten-year period, as individuals and communities worked to heal from trauma--including from gun violence, housing and food insecurity, poverty, and other harms. Cities for Life is about a new way forward with urban communities that rebuilds our social institutions, practices, and policies to be more focused on healing and health.

Today, governmental efforts at long-term community recovery from a natural disaster consist primarily of rebuilding the physical artifact of the community. This entails reestablishing vital community services and infrastructure and creating housing to replace that which has been lost. While restoring the built environment of a disaster area is esse

The collapse of the World Trade Center shattered windows across the street in Battery Park City, throwing the neighborhood into darkness and smothering homes in debris. Residents fled. In the months and years after they returned, they worked to restore their community. Until September 11, Battery Park City had been a secluded, wealthy enclave just west Wall Street, one with all the opulence of the surrounding corporate headquarters yet with a gated, suburban feel. After the towers fell it became the most visible neighborhood in New York. This ethnography of an elite planned community near the heart of New York City’s financial district examines both the struggles and shortcomings of one of the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods. In doing so, September 12 discovers the vibrant exclusivity that makes Battery Park City an unmatched place to live for the few who can gain entry. Focusing on both the global forces that shape local landscapes and the exclusion that segregates American urban development, Smithsimon shows the tensions at work as the neighborhood’s residents mobilized to influence reconstruction plans. September 12 reveals previously unseen conflicts over the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan, providing a new understanding of the ongoing, reciprocal relationship between social conflicts and the spaces they both inhabit and create.

Learn to create a positive research/action alliance similar to that of DePaul University and the Oxford House community This book reviews important research conducted in a 13-year collaborative partnership between Oxford House (a community-based, self-run residential substance abuse recovery program) and DePaul University. It also presents practical guidelines for developing effective action research collaborative programs that can cultivate and maintain mutually beneficial community/research partnerships. Creating Communities for Addiction Recovery: The Oxford House Model presents and examines: practical guidelines for developing effective action research collaboratives focusing on the development of trust, respecting the personal experiences of the community members and the group, commitment to serving the community, validating findings with organization members, and accountability the experiences and attitudes of Oxford House community members in light of their participation in the collaborative research projects described in the book the essentials of designing and creating an efficient and productive yet homey residential community environment for addicted persons the factors that make Oxford Houses in the United States and Australia “safe and sober” settings for persons in recovery the differential growth among self-governed substance abuse recovery homes for men and for women—with a focus on the impact of state loan programs and the utilization of technical assistance in relation to the expansion of women’s houses as compared with men’s the economic advantages of the Oxford House model as compared with other treatment and incarceration alternatives the roles of ethnicity and gender in substance abuse recovery the structural social support of Oxford House men—and the impact of parenthood on these men’s substance use patterns and recovery attempts the medical care (need and utilization) patterns of a substance abusing and recovering population how Oxford House’s African-American community functions as a source of abstinent social networks the sense of community among women and women with children living in Oxford Houses—with emphasis on how the presence of children impacts the household perspectives of leadership by women (some with children, some without) affiliated with Oxford Houses The information in this book shows that the rules of the game have changed. Substance abusers now can take charge of their own recovery in effective and efficient ways, and practitioners can find low-cost housing options for their clients with substance abuse problems. As a part of your professional/teaching collection, Creating Communities for Addiction Recovery can help you or your students take understand and make effective use of this rapidly evolving paradigm of community-based recovery.