The Kresge Foundation’s FreshLo (fresh, local and equitable) Initiative is designed to strengthen economic development and health among 23 low-income communities by integrating Creative Placemaking and food-oriented development. With FreshLo, the Kresge Foundation is the first national funder to intentionally and equitably integrate food, art, and community to drive neighborhood revitalization at this large of a scale. As FreshLo’s learning and evaluation partner, LFA has learned first-hand about the initiative’s unique strengths. First, from the very beginning, Kresge and DAISA (the National Program Office) authentically sought to center equity - for example, honoring local wisdom, operating from a stance of humility, using an open RFP to attract a wide range of partners, and offering flexible, multi-year funding that allows communities to focus on their mission. Second, the FreshLo initiative reflects an intentionally interdisciplinary design (co-led by Kresge’s Health and Arts & Culture Programs), which helps to honor the holistic, lived experiences of people in communities. Third, the initiative strongly prioritizes cross-community learning, with multiple multi-day convenings and learning experiences, in addition to highly customized technical assistance to support grantee efforts. In order to share what we have learned through LFA’s equitable evaluation approach, Kresge commissioned an equitable evaluation teaching case by the Equitable Evaluation Initiative. In early 2020, LFA will be developing a series of narrative reports telling the stories about community-oriented economic development and the integration of food and creative placemaking strategies to inform the Kresge Foundation, grantees, and the broader field partners.

Homebridge serves a high-risk, high-needs, complexly-diagnosed population with a combination of domestic, personal and paramedical in-home supportive services (IHSS) funded by the Department of Aging and Adult Services in San Francisco. Its work allows an often-underserved population to live safely in their communities. Homebridge offers an employee/training program for its nearly 320 home care providers (HCPs). The HCP role is a challenging and often undervalued job. In 2018, Homebridge formalized its HCP training courses into a workforce development program, with the goal of transforming a single-tier job into one that launches advancement up a career ladder. Their program includes professional development, promotion opportunities, and wage increases. Homebridge engaged LFA to conduct a formative evaluation of this program to learn about its effects on staff retention and job satisfaction. The evaluation findings were encouraging. Homebridge’s career ladder model infuses the HCP role with new value in several ways: training builds the talents of HCPs, HCPs are more likely to see themselves as the skilled professionals they are, and the job itself brings in a higher wage. Another aspect of the career ladder is Homebridge’s new practice of promoting HCPs into supervisory roles. This practice honors the talents, knowledge, and experience of HCPs - and Homebridge has found that former HCPs often make some of the best managers. HCPs supervised by former HCPs know that their managers truly understand the HCP job - these managers “get it.” At the same time, HCPs see themselves in their managers, so are more encouraged to aspire to a new role. This re-valuing of HCP work up and down the career ladder at Homebridge is especially profound because the occupation is dominated by women of color. “Women’s work” - and especially work done by women of color - is systematically devalued in our society. Homebridge is tackling this culture of devaluing HCP work head-on, promoting a more equitable workplace and helping to reshape the HCP occupation in San Francisco.