Programs
Community Opportunity Fund has a variety of programming priorities across a range of topics including wellbeing, financial security, digital connectivity, and community building and recreation.
We carry out our work with a wide range of partners (nonprofits, community based organizations, for profit companies, etc.) to further our work. If you are interested in exploring how we can work together, please contact us at info@communityopportunityfund.org.
Telehealth Intervention Programs (TIPs)
TIPs is a remote patient monitoring program that provides enhanced wraparound social services programs to low-income, high health risk, underserved communities. The COF TIPS program was launched at Grace West, a 429-unit Section 8 senior and family community in Newark N.J.
Funded by three years of support from Fannie Mae, the combination of telehealth technology and the ground community health advisors has significantly improved resident health. Read more about the program here and about our award from Fannie Mae here.
Scaling the program to further affordable housing properties has always been one of our goals. In 2023, COF secured additional grant funding from Enterprise Community Partner’s Thome Aging Well Program to launch telehealth at an affordable, senior property in Detroit, Michigan. The new program brings free, weekly, on site health screenings and associated health-based wrap around services to the 200 senior apartments at Village Center, Detroit.
Research Projects
Urban Land Institute (ULI) Terwilliger Resident Services Study
With partners at the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing, Community Opportunity Fund is seeking to conduct a high-level review of the current state of resident services approaches in affordable housing. The study will aim to identify the role and purposes of resident services in affordable housing, investigate how they are currently being funded, and identify emerging trends. This research will underline and provide hard evidence for the need for investment in resident services.
Academic Research on Communities of Opportunity (CoO)
We believe that the Communities of Opportunity (CoO) model delivers significant benefits to low income residents of green affordable housing, especially when supported with resident service coordinators (RSCs). But believing is not enough, we are now on the path to more deeply understanding if and how the model works.
With funding from the JPB Foundation, the Community Opportunity Fund conducted a field scan with partners from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Success Measures, Enterprise, and Jonathan Rose Companies. The field scan here examined housing-based interventions to improve residents’ health.
The COF and its expert team has received additional funding from JPB to carry out a three-year pilot program to understand and analyze the effects of the CoO model at properties within the Jonathan Rose Companies portfolio. The CoO model seeks to leverage housing as a pathway to comprehensive resident health and wellbeing, using a resident-centered participatory framework including programs and services to support residents’ needs and desires.
Digital Connectedness Efforts
Digital access is essential for affordable housing residents to access equal opportunities. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has only further legitimized this claim by demonstrating the requirement of technology to stay employed, remain connected with loved ones, access resources, and even receive medical attention. Community Opportunity Fund strongly believes in providing communities with technology that will greatly improve access to opportunities and result in both short- and long-term positive outcomes for residents.
We are currently undertaking concerted efforts to secure devices and training for residents in Jonathan Rose Companies’ housing. Examples of programming of interest include getting devices like computers, laptops, and tablets into residents’ hands and training on a range of digital topics including using a device, navigating the internet, workforce development, etc. If you are interested in working together to bring devices and/or training to multi-family and/or senior residences or know of free or low-cost devices that Community Opportunity Fund could distribute, please reach out to us at: info@communityopportunityfund.org.
Grant Awards for Resident Programming and Services
Beyond involvement in program provision, Community Opportunity Fund is committed to awarding grants to community based organizations that provide programming to support residents in areas of wellbeing, financial security, digital connectivity, and community building and recreation. We previously supported a comprehensive arts instruction program through Arts Unbound for seniors at Grace West, an affordable housing property in Newark, NJ. This program created an opportunity for seniors to learn new skills, build new hobbies, and communicate through art. We are currently supporting another organization, The Newark School of the Arts, to bring dance and theatre programming to seniors at Grace West. The programming creates a safe space for physical and therapeutic activity through dance and performance. If you are interested in exploring whether your organization could apply for our grant awards, please email info@communityopportunityfund.org.