USF Community Cries for Rapid Employment Due to COVID-19 Devastating Job Loss

Josie Rocco hung up the phone and wiped away the tears streaming down her face as she contemplated what her next move would be. This was the third call she'd received that day where all she could say was, “I am so sorry to hear that.” Words that felt empty with no real solutions or answers attached to them. Josie was the Chief Operations Officer for the University Area Community Development Corporation, Inc. (UACDC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving community through resident empowerment and self-sufficiency. Josie was in charge of all the programs and services, and in her 25 years of doing this work, she had never heard such hopelessness in her community's collective voice. The number of residents who had lost their jobs due to COVID-19 was overwhelming. This public health pandemic came out of nowhere, like a thief in the night stealing away security and peace, leaving behind the devastating effects of death, unemployment, loss of housing, and crippling food insecurity.

Working Together to Improve Community-Level Health: The Evolution of the New York City Food & Fitness Partnership

The New York City Food & Fitness Partnership case study discusses how the scope and abundance of diverse community stakeholders can create difficulties when addressing and conducting work in a large city landscape. We describe our 9-year journey, from initial citywide planning, to early challenges, to rebirth as a Central Brooklyn–focused effort led by a community development corporation. We describe difficult and transparent conversations, and the various leadership changes and organizational transitions that have helped the partnership embrace equity frameworks. We illustrate how these principles have been demonstrated in their efforts to be community driven, ensuring that intended beneficiaries would be involved in every stage of decision making.

Public Benevolent Institutions for Native Title Groups: An Underappreciated Model?

There has been limited research into the relevance of public benevolent institutions (‘PBI's) to the management of native title benefits. Despite this omission, a new, tax-effective, structure was proposed in 2013, being the ‘Indigenous Community Development Corporation’ (‘ICDC’). PBI characterisation is also becoming more relevant as native title determination numbers increase, such that there is a suitable and interested body, the prescribed body corporate (‘PBC’) that can pursue a variety of functions in fulfilling its statutory duties and in seeking to realise the economic, social and cultural objectives of Indigenous groups. This article asserts that a purpose of addressing Indigenous disadvantage is a PBI purpose and that it permits a broad range of activities in order to meet that end. Accordingly, PBI status should be available for many PBCs and other benefits management structure institutions. As a result, the proposed grounds for introducing the ICDC are significantly less compelling and it is argued that a more cautious approach is warranted, being one that better recognises ICDC limitations and that does not over-emphasise the potential benefits.