Facilitating community prosperity from WITHIN
Our commitment to ensuring that every child and family is stable and thriving goes beyond words. We drive tangible change in disinvested urban communities.
We listen intently and become part of the fabric of communities so that our strategies produce meaningful, sustainable change.
With over 40 years as a national non-profit leader, our most notable achievements include:
- Implemented comprehensive Human Capital planning in 25 major cities, including two territories.
- Secured over $400 million in federal Choice Neighborhood Initiative funds.
- Leveraged over $3 billion from public and private sources for innovative support service programs and initiatives.
- Secured $8.5 million in COVID-19 rent relief
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- Partnered with schools in 13 major cities to support cradle-to-college/career pipelines.
- Served as the lead implementation partner for people support services in 20 Choice Neighborhoods.
- Coordinated Community Support Services in 12 HOPE VI communities.
- Became selected as an Annie E. Casey Results Count Hub, a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “Your Money, Your Goals” cohort fellow, with Executive Leaders chosen for the Center for Community Investment at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, The Bridges Collaborative by The Century Foundation, and ProInspire.
- Gained approval as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) in 2020.
- Doubled in size during the pandemic years.
- Emerged as a leading PEOPLE grantee with HUD’s Choice Neighborhood Initiative, receiving 19 grants.
- Received Missouri’s First Promise Neighborhood Grant, focusing on equity in education strategies.
- Expanded as an organization of color serving communities of color.
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Impact Reports
We believe our communities are stronger thanks to the collective strength of empowerment for each individual USI resident. We showcase the positive changes happening in distressed communities across the country in our national annual Impact Report.
2021 Impact Report
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2020 Impact Report
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2019 Impact Report
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Latest News and Announcements
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Stories of U.S.
Beyond Capacity Building: A Call for Narrative Shift
Over our 45 years working in neighborhood transformation, we've learned that narrative matters. Prevailing narratives can either shape, reinforce or shift accepted truths, widely held mental models and prevailing biases. And ultimately, narratives influence the...
Community Reinvestment Act’s Shortcomings and the Judicial Plays
The Supreme Court's decision on June 29, 2023, effectively ending the consideration of race in college admissions in Students For Fair Admissions, Inc. V. President And Fellows Of Harvard College, has had far-reaching implications. The ruling overturned a longstanding...
Uniting Change with Healthy Partnerships Through Community Engagement & Outreach
USI’s Columbus and Sacramento have used the power of networking to secure reliable partnerships to provide much-needed events throughout the community that residents can rely on. USI prides itself on building trust in our communities to continue our commitment to...