TPT: Bulding Strong Communtites reorganizes the importance of the city's core to a prosperous future.

Initiatives

Downtown Revitalization

Hamilton Community Foundation will be investing $500,000 over five years toward the revitalization of Hamilton's downtown core. The proposed downtown revitalization investment is part of the second phase of HCF's ongoing Tackling Poverty Together (TPT) strategy to reduce poverty and promote prosperity in Hamilton.

Currently, an Advisory Committee to the Board of Directors has been formed to generate possibilities for this investment and to make recommendations regarding possible options. The committee is chaired by HCF board member Mr. Brian Mullen, Director of Human Resources at Arcelor Mittal Dofasco, and includes representatives from the City of Hamilton, business, the voluntary sector and residents in the core.

As a first step, the Committee has prepared a research paper titled Current Downtown Revitalization Literature and Practices & the Hamilton Context and is conducting public consultations with citizens and youth.

In considering possible investment, the Committee will be guided by a number of principles that also guide the Foundation's grantmaking strategy and other activities:

• Leverage: the Foundation's investment should act as a catalyst for action. It should leverage contributions (financial, human, other) from community partners, magnifying the impact of the Foundation's gift
• Multi-stakeholder, collaborative involvement: the strategy should involve a wide variety of key institutions, sectors and individuals who have a stake in the vitality of the downtown core and promote collaboration among them
• Asset-based: the strategy should build on the assets existing in the downtown core and the complementary strengths of the partners
• Evidence and best practices: the strategy should be based on research and an understanding of best practices and experience in core revitalization in comparable settings
• Innovation: while informed by best practices, proposed strategies should take advantage of opportunities for innovation
• Place-based: evidence shows that poverty is increasingly concentrated in specific geographic areas and strategies focused on specific neighbourhoods are effective. The downtown revitalization strategy should be designed expressly for Hamilton's downtown core, taking into consideration its particular assets, opportunities and challenges
• Collaboration: the process of developing options and arriving at recommendations should be a collaborative one, calling on the expertise and inspiration of as wide a variety of key stakeholders as possible
• Sustainability: any strategy proposed must take sustainability into account, if it is conceived as a long-term initiative
• Leadership: Hamilton Community Foundation has both resources and relationships that can be put at the service of the community. Because of the nature of the community foundation - its long-term perspective and its non-partisan, 360 degree perspective on community issues - it is well-placed to convene the community on broad concerns and offer leadership in building shared solutions
• Evaluation and learning: any strategy implemented must capture developmental learning

Read more about TPT II: Building Strong Communities