In 1990, the Ford Foundation launched the Neighborhood and Family Initiative (NFI). One of the earliest of what have come to be known as comprehensive community initiatives (CCIs), NFI eventually became a 10-year effort that sought to strengthen a single neighborhood in each of four cities and improve the quality of life of the families who live in them. Chapin Hall was the national evaluator for NFI throughout its duration. Presented here are the final three reports from this evaluation. The summary of findings and final report provide an update on the activities of the initiative since November 1996 and distill the lessons learned by NFI over much of its implementation through June 2000, placing these lessons within the context of what has been learned by other CCIs.

The Interim Report covering the period November 1996-December 1998 focuses on issues related to attempts to engage significant resident participation and support community "empowerment" while developing not-for-profit organizations with strong, competent staff and boards. It also focuses on trends in programmatic activity and some responses to the increased pressure to leverage resources to replace and supplement the Ford Foundation grants. Finally, the report looks at the broader institutional support structure—the roles of the community foundation and the Ford Foundation, key issues encountered in the provision of technical assistance, and the challenges of evaluation and understanding initiative impact. While the collaboratives see themselves largely as facilitators rather than implementors, their ability to continue to play this role is limited by the extent their ability to access resources previously provided by the initiative, such as unrestricted funding and access to technical assistance. Instead, what they can do—and how they do it—is more likely to be determined by available funding, much of which is for specific programmatic activities rather than operational support.

The 1997 Interim Report focuses primarily on the issue of sustainability. It addresses the local contexts in which the Initiative operates; explores how the collaboratives collaborate, both internally and with other community and city residents and organizations; and reviews programming at each site, considering the extent to which programming efforts conform to the idea of comprehensive community development that underlies the Initiative. The authors review ongoing funding issues and the strategies that sites have adopted to promote their own long-term viability.