Place-Based Approaches

Our Work

Young people’s futures aren’t shaped just by their families or schools — their communities matter, too. Evidence shows that a young person’s social network can be a stronger predictor of economic mobility than their individual family’s circumstances. Place-based partnerships — in which local residents and organizations from different sectors collaborate to achieve systemic change — strengthen and sustain relationships between young people and their communities.

Bellwether supports place-based partnerships and organizations building capacity in the field in specific regions, including education collaboratives, economic mobility initiatives, and collective impact efforts. Our work includes:

Strategic Planning: We develop tailored strategic plans for place-based partnerships and intermediaries that help them set priorities, define their goals, and improve how they operate.

Landscape Analysis: We provide in-depth, data-driven analyses of community demographics, assets, and policy trends to help clients set the right priorities.

Implementation Support: We work with place-based organizations to define clear roles, responsibilities, and structures so they can put their plans into action.

Partnership Facilitation: We help organizations collaborate with one another to achieve results, including launching new collective impact efforts.

Evaluation: We support organizations to use data to define their impact, collect information, assess their success, and plan for the future.

Our Impact

Mobile Area Education Foundation (MAEF): Since 2023, Bellwether has partnered with MAEF in Alabama to create a multiyear vision of success, including a strategic plan for its Youth Success Partnership initiative. Through a collective impact model, the Youth Success Partnership seeks to ensure that all young people in Mobile County, Alabama, are equipped to achieve their goals. Bellwether’s collaboration with MAEF includes facilitation of conversations among community members and support on creating shared goals around education, health care access, and postsecondary workforce development.

Partners for Rural Impact (PRI): In 2017, Bellwether helped PRI create its first strategic plan, shape its vision, and launch as an independent national nonprofit. Since then, our team has provided strategic and tactical advice to PRI to help it develop new leadership structures and grow its impact across the country. Now, as the leading place-based rural nonprofit in the country, PRI continues to transform communities across rural America.

William Julius Wilson Institute (WJWI) at Harlem Children’s Zone: In 2024, Bellwether helped the WJWI implement the ENOUGH Act in Maryland — a signature piece of legislation designed to increase statewide place-based partnerships. Our team worked with WJWI to develop a coordinated approach that supported ENOUGH Act funding recipients across Maryland.

The Chamberlin Education Foundation: In California, we partnered with the Chamberlin Education Foundation to reflect on its decade of work to improve educational opportunity and excellence in West Contra Costa, California. Our evaluation found that the foundation’s investments — in areas such as instructional materials, educator pipelines, and family advocacy — have strengthened the underlying infrastructure that supports teaching, learning, and community voice. These efforts haven’t just supported individual programs; they’ve made it easier for the entire West Contra Costa community ecosystem to better serve more young people and their families.

Our Team

Lauren Miller
Partner

Rebecca Gifford Goldberg
Managing Partner

Carrie Chimerine Irvin
Executive Adviser

Melissa Steel King
Senior Partner

Hailly T.N. Korman
Senior Associate Partner

Liz Russel McNamee
Senior Associate Partner

Nithya Rajan
Partner