CBI is a community
power-building academy.

The Community Building Initiative (CBI) was created to meet the St. Joseph Fund (SJF)’s mission of continually improving the health and quality of life of people in the communities we serve. The CBI vision is to build the capacity of neighborhoods to act on their own behalf to address upstream conditions that perpetuate health, social, and economic disparities.

CBI transforms traditional grantmaking by redefining local achievements as steps toward building a neighborhood’s capacities and power. Not satisfied with simply reducing a local problem or two, CBI provides the resources neighborhoods need to identify their local issues, understand the policies and practices that give rise to their issues, and take self-defined steps to organize and apply the resources needed to continue making lasting, positive change.

We are committed to supporting neighborhoods’ authority to define and work on resolving their needs. Rather than emphasizing compliance with pre-defined grant goals and strategies, CBI focuses on the various ways neighborhood residents learn how to build and exercise their power. “Power building” is CBI’s explicit focus, with local achievements serving as the steps each neighborhood takes toward this end.

CBI is truly a learning community with a culture that promotes risk and shared ownership of challenges. It facilitates open discussions of lessons and consistently demonstrates a commitment to its stated values. This all centers on a single vision: distressed neighborhoods developing and exercising their power to make change.