1. THE KIRWAN INSTITUTE
5TH ANNIVERSARY
The Opportunity
Communities Program
March 19, 2009
Moritz Law School
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH
Jason Reece, AICP
Senior Researcher
The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity
The Ohio State University
Reece.35@osu.edu
Co-hosted by the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity and the
Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University

2. Section 1
Opportunity Communities
 Today’s discussion
 Opportunity matters
 The foundation of our work
 TheOpportunity
Communities model and
program
 What is it
 Application and impact
 Recent examples

3. Section 2
Opportunity Matters: Space, Place, and Life
Outcomes
 “Opportunity” is a situation or condition that places individuals in a
position to be more likely to succeed or excel
 Opportunity structures are critical to opening pathways to success:
 High-quality education
 Healthy and safe environment
 Stable housing
 Sustainable employment
 Political empowerment
 Outlets for wealth-building
 Positive social networks

4. Opportunity Matters:
Neighborhoods & Access to Opportunity
 Five decades of research
indicate that your environment
has a profound impact on your
access to opportunity and
likelihood of success
 High poverty areas with poor
employment, underperforming
schools, distressed housing and
public health/safety risks
depress life outcomes
 A system of disadvantage
 Many manifestations
 Urban, rural, suburban
 People of color are far more
likely to live in opportunity
deprived neighborhoods and
communities
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5. Which community would you choose?
To be safe and have positive health outcomes? For your kids to receive a quality
education? Which community would be better for employment and have a more
sustainable tax base?

6. What are the implications of
opportunity isolation?
 Individual
 Poor economic outcomes, lower educational
outcomes, degraded asset development
 Poor health conditions, higher exposure and risk from
crime
 Psychological distress, weak social and professional
networks
 Community/Economy
 High social costs, distressed and stressed
communities, fiscal challenges
 Weakened civic engagement and democratic participation
 Underdeveloped human capital, poor labor outlook, poor
economic development prospects

7. The Opportunity Communities
Model
 The “Communities of Opportunity”
framework is a model of social justice,
fair housing and community
development based on the premises
that everyone should have fair
access to the critical opportunity
structures needed to succeed in
life.
 Affirmatively connecting people to
opportunity creates positive,
transformative change for
individuals, communities and our
society.
 The Communities of Opportunity
model advocates for a fair investment
in all of a region’s people and
neighborhoods -- to improve the life
outcomes of all citizens, and to
improve the health of entire regions.

8. Producing Opportunity
Communities Analysis
Systems
Opportunity
Based Fair
Housing
Planning for
Opportunity Neighborhood
Mapping Opportunity Revitalization
Communities
Equitable
Regional Policy

9. Section 3
Mapping Opportunity: Why and How
Inequality has a geographic
footprint
Maps can visually track the
history and presence of
discriminatory and
exclusionary policies that
spatially segregate people
Identifying places with gaps in
opportunity can help direct
future investment and identify
structures which impede
access to opportunity
(Strategic Intervention Points to
produce change)

11. Application and Impact
 In the past five years our model has been
utilized in communities across the nation
to promote social justice
 Expanding opportunity for marginalized
groups
 Recent examples:
 Regional equity in Cleveland, OH
 Public housing residents and fair housing in
Baltimore, MD
 Legal services neighborhoods and racial isolation in
MA
 Kirwan’s significant contributions to the
field
 Subprime lending and race
 Mapping and social justice
 Opportunity based housing and community
development

12. Opportunity Communities in
Litigation: Thompson v. HUD
(Remedial Proposal)
 Director powell’s
involvement in both the
liability and remedy
phases of the litigation, on
behalf of NAACP Legal
Defense Fund and the
Maryland ACLU
 Used the opportunity
community model to
identify solutions for a fair
housing for the Baltimore
region
 Potential impact on 7,000 public
housing families in the Baltimore
region

13. Section 1
MA Legal Services and
Opportunity Communities
 Background on this
project
 Originated from effort to
incorporated structural
analysis into legal services
 Partners
 Massachusetts Law Reform
Institute, MA Legal
Assistance Corp and other
Legal Services Entities
 Impacts
 National Consumer Law Center, State
opportunity assessment, Adopt a Zip Code

14. To access this report and other resources please
visit us on-line at: www.kirwaninstitute.org
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