February 22, 2023 Press Releases

Albuquerque and Tulsa Selected for the Opportunity Accelerator to Drive Economic Mobility and Advance Racial Equity

Join Nationwide Effort to Work With Place-Based Partnerships and Residents to Make Equitable Population-Level Progress on Improving Life Outcomes

WASHINGTON, DC – Results for America announced the Opportunity Accelerator (OA), a collaboration with the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University, Code for America, the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab and the W. Haywood Burns Institute, has selected Tulsa, Okla. and Albuquerque, N.M. to join its cohort of communities promoting economic mobility, reducing racial disparities and improving the lives of their residents.

The two new communities will become part of a nationwide movement of local and state governments that are collaborating with place-based partnerships and directly with residents to identify and address barriers to economic mobility. Specifically, the OA will:

  • Support Albuquerque’s efforts to expand homeownership opportunities for Black residents between the ages of 18-45. The City’s recently released Housing Equity Needs Assessment showed that Black and Native communities are suffering from housing instability at a higher rate and that only 16 percent of its focus population is ready to purchase a home. Albuquerque will partner with the State of New Mexico, community organizations and lenders to offer financial literacy education, credit repair, down payment/closing costs assistance, and connections to realtors who look like them.
  • Help Tulsa create a governance model to advance its recently approved revitalization plan of the historic Kirkpatrick Heights-Greenwood district (Black Wall Street) that encourages community leadership and ownership of the development long-term. This second phase of the project seeks to support racial equity, minimize resident displacement, increase the number of minority-owned businesses and homeowners, and raise the median income of local residents. Additionally, the project aims to boost the percentage of minority and Black developers participating in the development plan.

“We are thrilled to have Albuquerque and Tulsa join our growing movement of communities that are creating a new model for government that collaborates with residents to dismantle the structural racism that has left too many neighborhoods behind,” said Jennifer Park, the Executive Director of the Opportunity Accelerator, who has helped lead Results for America’s work with local governments. “Through the OA, we are supporting local leaders to build systems that increase the impact of the over $2 trillion U.S. governments spend each year to open opportunities and promote economic mobility for all.”

The OA collaboration, led by Results for America, is currently working in three communities (San Antonio-Bexar County, Oakland-Alameda County, Memphis-Shelby County) to help local governments advance programs that reduce systemic barriers to residents reaching key milestones—across life stages—that lead to social and economic mobility. With the insights gained from these communities, the OA aims to scale successful practices to hundreds of governments nationwide, with the vision of strengthening the wellbeing of millions of residents.

The collaboration is supported by Blue Meridian Partners, a national philanthropic organization that finds and funds scalable solutions to the problems that limit economic mobility and trap America’s young people and families in poverty.

About the OA collaborative organizations:

Results for America:
Results for America is helping decision-makers at all levels of government harness evidence and data to make progress on our greatest challenges. Our mission is to make investing in what works the “new normal,” so that government decision-makers regularly and effectively use evidence and data to increase the impact of the over $2 trillion that governments spend each year to open opportunities and advance economic mobility.

Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University:
Founded in 2015, The Center for Government Excellence (GovEx) at Johns Hopkins University, supports and coaches leaders and their teams to build a data-driven public sector that fairly and justly uses data, research, and analytics to better understand complex issues, engage residents, and implement policy interventions that lead to equitable outcomes and transforms the standard of living for underserved residents. We distill best practices from around the globe and offer technical support to help city leaders improve data and performance management. GovEx invests in communities by also providing in-depth training courses to educate government staff, at all levels, on the value of data in providing equitable services.

Code for America:
Code for America, a nonprofit founded in 2009, believes that government can work for the people, and by the people, in the digital age. We work with government at all levels across the country to make the delivery of public services equitable with technology. Together with thousands of volunteers across the U.S., we work with community organizations and governments to build digital tools, change policies, and improve programs. Our goal: a resilient government that effectively and equitably serves everyone.

Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab:
The Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab (GPL), based in the School’s Taubman Center for State and Local Government, supports state and local governments across the country in designing and implementing solutions to pressing social problems. The GPL has conducted more than 200 projects in 35 states, helping innovative state and local government leaders improve the results they achieve for their residents. An important part of the GPL’s research model involves capturing the insights, tools and practices that are gained through these hands-on projects and sharing them with government leaders across the country.

W. Haywood Burns Institute:
The W. Haywood Burns Institute (BI) is a black-led national, non-profit with a diverse team of bold visionaries. Always challenging racial hierarchy and the social control of communities of color by the justice sector and other public systems, BI employs strategies and tactics to establish a community centered approach to transformation that is anchored in structural well-being.

Blue Meridian Partners:
Through its Place Matters portfolio, Blue Meridian aims to improve economic and social mobility in communities across the US through investments both in place-based partnerships and in supports to catalyze their success.

Media Contact
Results for America: Cheryl Burnett, 310-560-6648, [email protected]

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