Towards Social and Economic Mobility

In alignment with our strategic priority to improve social and economic mobility in Northern Virginia, the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia (Community Foundation) has embraced the growing momentum towards trust-based philanthropy in our grantmaking. Developing trust with community takes time and resources that are not typically prioritized in program-specific grants. Our trust-based approach to grantmaking has allowed nonprofits to support programs or initiatives that foster deeper community engagement. Over a three-year period, the Community Foundation’s Lamond Fund to Benefit Children and Youth invested $200,000 in United Community through unrestricted, multi-year grants. With these unrestricted funds from the Community Foundation, United Community pursued an innovative, theory-based Lived Experience Consultants (LEC) initiative to understand the community along the Route 1 corridor in Alexandria and Fairfax County, helping build trust and provide deeper access to community supports. The LEC initiative demonstrated impact on LEC participants, the community, and United Community, itself.

The Lamond Fund of the Community Foundation provides grants to promote social and economic mobility of children and youth along the Route 1 corridor. As identified in a 2021 Insight Region report, Spreading the Wealth, this geographic region experiences low levels of social and economic opportunity, compared to other communities in Northern Virginia.

Acknowledgements: Insight Region^® would like to thank those who contributed to this work. From United Community, Ivanna Escobar provided thought leadership and contributed to the development of data collection protocols, Ryan Thompson continued to move this effort forward by reviewing early drafts and coordinating with Lived Experience Consultants and other colleagues, Steve Luteran provided helpful information, and Leah Fraley was quick to provide thoughtful responses to our questions. From the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia, Insight Region would like to thank Sari Raskin, Renée Byng Yancey, and Tara Nadel for thought leadership on this report and critical feedback during review of early drafts. We would also like to thank Amanda Bomfim for her expertise in the final report design. Finally, we would like to acknowledge contributions to data collection, analysis, and writing by our summer intern, Daania Sharifi.

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