Serious social problems such as poverty, low education levels, crime, and a host of health issues are often interrelated. They frequently reinforce and compound each other. Many organizations are addressing one or more of those issues, but typically each organization is focused on only a piece of a more complex set of problems. The public sector tends to do this through large, bureaucratic silos, while the not-for-profit sector is incredibly fragmented. Many organizations do good work. Unfortunately, though, fragmented and siloed approaches to complex problems seldom lead to lasting impacts.

The John Marshall Neighborhood Opportunity Hub on the eastside of Indianapolis solves a list of community needs with private sector collaboration at a abandoned high school in one of the city’s most highly populated distressed neighborhoods.

Distressed neighborhoods often experience a steady decline in household wealth, education levels, and individual health indicators. This is not just a local phenomenon but one that carries across much of the nation. Poverty, household income, and inequality as economic indicators have been moving in a negative direction for much of the past decade for a growing number of urban and rural neighborhoods.