14.534: Strong Cities Strong Communities (SC2) National Resource Network

14.534

Inactive

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

Sept. 20, 2018

Sept. 14, 2018

The purpose of the SC2 National Resource Network is to help strengthen local communities and spur economic growth. The SC2 Network will provide economically distressed communities with short-term technical assistance in basic operational areas as well as programmatic issues, dictated by local need. In addition, the SC2 Network will aggregate public and private resources to serve a wide range of governments and connect them through a peer-to-peer learning network. The objectives of the programs are as follows: •Provide communities facing long-term economic challenges with easily accessible and comprehensive technical assistance that can help retool them for future economic growth; •Build capacity in distressed communities by connecting them with philanthropic organizations, non profits, public and private sector entities to facilitate long-term partnerships and economic investments; •Develop a set of best practices and policy recommendations that can be disseminated and shared across all communities facing similar economic challenges; •Improve the alignment of federal resources as well as strengthen federal and local partnerships.

B - Cooperative Agreements

The grantee of the SC2 Network, will have five categories of eligible activities: 1.Structure Development: Develop the SC2 Network structure that would include a team of expert technical service providers (pro bono or paid) that represent the breadth of relevant expertise needed to address the long-term economic challenges of communities. This responsibility also includes developing a Peer-to-Peer network to share lessons learned and best practices. 2.Engagement: Develop the engagement strategy for how the network will assist economically-distressed cities. This responsibility also includes systematizing how cities are engaged, prioritizing the level of assistance for each city, and matching the level of assistance based on the needs of each city. 3.Capacity building: Increase the capacity of participating governments in the area of intervention, not just to provide a one-time service that they cannot replicate. This responsibility might also include establishing a Local Resource Network (LRN) for communities with potential private and philanthropic resources to sustain local capacity building over a longer term. 4.Evaluation: Carefully document and evaluate interventions to build a series of best practice strategies that can benefit places with similar challenges, and develop forums for sharing this knowledge. 5.Policy Recommendation: Identify for the SC2 Council how federal policy changes could help local governments better achieve their economic development visions, and other policies, systems, and practices that support holistic and sustainable economic development. In addition to these five categories, the Administrator will also work with the other three components of SC2 (described under I.A.1. SC2 Components), as well as the SC2 Council (described under I.A.2 Executive Order) to meet the broad goals and objectives of the initiative.

The grantee must also have a demonstrated ability to obtain other community, private sector, and federal resources that can be combined with HUD’s program resources to achieve program objectives. In general, an ideal Administrator will have most or all of the following characteristics: •Place-based: The selected applicant, buoyed by support of agencies and the philanthropic community, will have experience working in many distressed communities, and will be able to match these communities to relevant technical experts quickly and efficiently. •Resource-maximizing: The selected applicant will have a national scope and will be well-accustomed to the challenge of distributing scarce resources across communities with distinct needs. The ability to effectively evaluate requests for service will be paramount to using the SC2 Network’s resources to their greatest potential. •Nimble, responsive, and service-oriented: The SC2 Network will be designed to provide very timely assistance that can thoroughly understand and adapt to needs on the ground. Therefore, the selected applicant will have, or can quickly pull together a deep team of technical experts, and, when necessary, develop partnerships between experts on issues that require multiple skill sets and excellent customer service skills. •Objective: In some cases, procedures or regulations may be a barrier to local capacity building. The selected applicant will facilitate local partnering and provide honest feedback to HUD and the other SC2 agencies for relieving burdens on local governments, while retaining accountability for results. • Sustainable: The selected Administrator will have the nonprofit management expertise required to make the SC2 Network financially sustainable, and as an outside entity, can attract philanthropic funding and leverage HUD’s investment several times over.