FEATURED CONTENT

Opportunity Alabama From OZs To Covid-19 Recovery

Opportunity Alabama’s singular skill for connecting capital, community leaders and developers earned the nonprofit a Forbes OZ 20 Grand Prize. Now that knack for coalition and capacity-building work is being leveraged to help Alabama communities bounce back from Covid-19’s economic blows.

Next week, Opportunity Alabama (OPAL) will be announcing  the first cohort of a new initiative called the Rural Recovery Accelerator, aimed at providing economic-development training and resources to counties with populations under 175,000 across the state.

Vital Data to Support Children during Covid-19

Children are among those most affected by food shortages, diminished public services, mental health strain, and worsening poverty wrought by the pandemic.

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"We developed the Early Childhood Data Playground (ECDP) at the Sorenson Impact Center to better understand the lives of children at the community level. As a society we struggle to objectively measure the well-being of children, especially those under five. There are few reliable measures of childhood development that community leaders and policymakers can rely on to help them understand a child’s trajectory between birth and starting school."

Opportunity Zones Market Trends And COVID-19

Written in partnership with Michael Novogradac, Grant Baskerville and Kyrene Clarke

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"As we seek to emerge from the public health and global economic crises, serious questions remain about how to deliver recovery that is equitable and builds resilience across our nation.

We must make sure not to repeat history, and look to lessons learned by those vulnerable communities that have still not fully recovered from the aftermath of the Great Recession. One way to do this is by looking at OZs."

Covid Q&A with Bruce Katz

Interview with Sorenson Impact'sGrant Baskerville 

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"I think this crisis has exposed an unbelievable structural deficiency on data, on products, on intermediaries, on business support organizations, on business models.

And I think coming out of this crisis, we have to start using data right now to understand what are the different situations that micro-business and particularly businesses owned by people of color find themselves in with regard to access to mainstream financial capital." 

Covid-19 and Social Impact

Written by the Sorenson ImpactData Scientists

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We believe that data can be used to empower better decision-making. Understanding the social context of the COVID-19 spread will be essential to informed policy discussions.

This analysis is not meant to replace peer-reviewed research, but to open a discussion on the type of social impact analysis that should be conducted on the spread and impacts of COVID-19. All of the data we analyze is public and can be found at the end of this article. 

Ahead Of The Curve: How To Make Rural America A Priority During COVID-19

Written in partnership with Matt Dunne at the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI).

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Rural communities could be more vulnerable to the long-term economic impacts of this crisis. Their economies are built around small businesses, have older workforces, and are highly dependent on industries likely to be disproportionately impacted by current events.

Riding out the Storm: 
Lessons from the Dot-Com Crash 

Written by the Sorenson Impact Founder Jim Sorenson 

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The global spread of COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on a booming U.S. economy and forced the creation of a $2 trillion stimulus package aimed at averting the onset of what would likely be a bruising recession. This is all the more difficult to comprehend because this current period of financial instability is not rooted in the misguided of toxic subprime mortgages or the unabated over-inflation of stocks. Instead, communities, businesses, and governments across the globe are for all intents and purposes being held hostage by a highly contagious disease.

Virtual Convening:
Small Business Survival Amid Covid-19

Explore the ramifications of the COVID-19 epidemic on micro and small businesses (1-19 employees).

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     + Overview of the SBA's $350B relief package

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     + Panel discussion led by Bruce Katz and other experts

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RSVP by April 10

www.sorensonimpact.com/virtual-convenings

PROJECT apART: 

A Community-Engaged Art 

Campaign

In an effort to spark creativity and connection during quarantine, the Sorenson Impact Center has launched PROJECT apART. Now more than ever, we must band together to celebrate our shared humanity and resiliency.