Policy, Advocacy & Practice
Winning and implementing policy requires strategy, organizing, and coalition-driven efforts.
In this body of work, Ground Works Consulting examines the policy landscape for community ownership. They translate lessons from community-driven campaigns across the country into practical resources that help practitioners, advocates, and policymakers understand how supportive policies get created, passed, implemented, and strengthened.
The Community Ownership Policy Guide
A guide for understanding the state and local policies that can help community-controlled land and housing succeed -- organized around five policy categories and paired with a searchable database of examples from across the country.
Advancing Community Ownership Policy Through Multi-Sector Partnerships & Coalitions
How can strategic coalition-building help advance community ownership policy at the state and local levels? This research brief offers strategies for building trust, finding commonality despite competing interests, growing political support, and holding shared priorities.
Beyond the Win: Advocacy Strategies for Community Ownership Policy Implementation
What happens after community ownership policies are passed, and why is implementation just as important as the legislative win? This research brief outlines strategies for strengthening implementation and sustaining momentum to protect hard-won gains.
What Comes Next? Sequencing Community Ownership Policy Campaigns
The campaign itself, not just the outcome, is the vehicle for educating policymakers, building coalitions, and establishing community ownership as a legitimate strategy that public officials have to engage with. This brief is about identifying and sequencing policy goals so that advocates can ultimately impact work on the ground and build political will that pays off later.
Building Blocks for Successful Community Ownership Campaigns
This research note distills key lessons in Ground Works’s research. It examines the building blocks of successful community ownership campaigns: why advocates create independent coalition organizations, how leadership development strengthens coalitions beyond any one individual, and how campaigns fund advocacy when supporters are cautious. It also highlights how legal service providers and professional lobbyists expand campaigns’ capacity through legislative, legal, strategic, and relationship-based support.
How do communities turn organizing power into lasting ownership? In this highlight reel, Ground Works Consulting's Leo Goldberg and Miriam Zuk break down their new research brief outlining coalition strategies for advancing community ownership policy. Featuring panelists from Northwest Cooperative Development Center (NWCDC), T.R.U.S.T. South LA, and Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB).