Opportunity Zones Local Impact

We are refining these tools and insights through a partnership with the City of Birmingham’s BIG program to engage and map community interest as part of Birmingham’s national leadership in this area. Already, our program has enabled BIG to communicate with over half its OZ residents, generated over a thousand survey responses, mapped community behavior and priorities in the digital and physical space, and opened up communication lines that provide government and investors with greater understanding and residents with greater agency.

Public Democracy is also an official partner with the White House, the US Census, and Housing and Urban Development for the Opportunity Project's opportunity zones sprint, which was launched in summer 2019 to ensure tech innovation for social impact. During an Opportunity Project sprint, technology companies, universities, and non-profits build products using open data from federal agencies and other sources. Data and policy experts from federal, state and local government, advocacy organizations, and product specialists participate to share their expertise and provide feedback during the sprint.

HUD Secretary Ben Carson explained the mission of this partnership: "Working together, we collaborate with the private sector to solve some of the most pressing issues facing Americans in economically distressed areas. This project will help ensure that Opportunity Zone stakeholders have access to the best data, innovation, and expertise as investment continues to flow into these under-served areas."  

During the 12-week partnership sprint, Public Democracy joined Citi Ventures, Amazon, Redfin, the Center on Rural Innovation, Solve, Proximate, and MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory as the tech partners supporting this mission.

To learn about the results from the Opportunity Project Tech Sprint, proceed through the short slide show below.