On a monthly basis, we post a high-level summary of work that has happened with Invest York Road (IYR) over the course of the previous month so that community members can stay informed about the progress being made.

Here are updates for the month of July:

• After an extended process of gathering input from community, working with lawyers and consultants, drafting and revising, the Invest York Road Steering Committee finalized our organizational bylaws. We have also selected a founding board and are moving into the next steps of incorporating IYR's new organization.
• As we move into this next phase of work, the IYR community engagement team has been building out different options for presenting, sharing information, and creating more dialogue with the community about our work and our initial target properties.
• We participated in our first session through the Brookings Institute's Buy Back the Block initiative, which has accelerated our work identifying and evaluating potential properties.
• In order to support ongoing organizational development and operations, we applied for grants from two of our most supportive partners, the Abell Foundation and the Goldseker Foundation.
• Invest York Road was invited to present at the Small Business Anti-Displacement Conference in November.

On a monthly basis, we post a high-level summary of work that has happened with Invest York Road (IYR) over the course of the previous month so that community members can stay informed about the progress being made.

Here are updates for the month of June:

• IYR was accepted into the Brookings Institute's Buy Back the Block initiative, which is a cohort program in which we will advance our mission alongside projects in Detroit and Cleveland that are also creating community-owned commercial real estate.
• Our community engagement team tabled at the Govans Branch Enoch Pratt Free Library's Afternoon of Jazz Concert, the Kingdom Worship Center’s community day event, and at the weekly Govans Farmers Market.
• Having received a previous BRNI grant to seed an internal revolving purchase fund, IYR has submitted a BRNI grant application for this cycle.
• IYR has been assembling a team of advisors for its work, and we conducted initial advisor orientation and Q&A sessions in which we received valuable input from professional experts in the fields of commercial real estate, development, construction, finance, communications, community engagement, and more.

On a monthly basis, we post a high-level summary of work that has happened with Invest York Road (IYR) over the course of the previous month so that community members can stay informed about the progress being made.

Here are updates for the month of May:

• Invest York Road continued to build out its pool of advisors, recruiting professionals in the real estate, construction, development, finance, communications, legal, and other fields to help support the organization's success.
• We held two community sessions to share information about IYR and help people get plugged into the project.
• A team of graduate students from the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School performed research and produced an inventory of commercial properties on York Road in the IYR service area. They presented their findings about vacancy rates, property usage, and more, and provided us with valuable insight and recommendations.
• We published a thorough FAQ on our website to provide the public with detailed responses to the most commonly asked questions about IYR. You can view the FAQ here, and if you have any questions that aren't answered there, please reach out to us here.

On a monthly basis, we post a high-level summary of work that has happened with Invest York Road (IYR) over the course of the previous month so that community members can stay informed about the progress being made.

Here are updates for the month of April:

• After several years of working with various community members and individuals with sector-specific knowledge, IYR has now begun organizing and coordinating our advisors in a more formal and intentional way. This process is laying the foundation for an eventual advisory board.
  
• IYR also started to identify specific real estate professionals, contractors, and other professional service providers for our upcoming projects.
  
• Our community engagement team attended an event at the Evergreen Museum & Library featuring Dr. Lawrence Jackson, who wrote a book called Shelter: A Black Tale of Homeland, Baltimore.
  
• In further refinement of our project model, we have figured out a new structure and regulation compliance strategy to make sure that investors share in the losses and returns of all properties in the Invest York Road portfolio rather than just individual properties. This creates a more solid diversified risk structure, which was a solution we had been seeking for some time.
  
• Work continues on finalizing the IYR incorporation and non-profit application processes, which both took another large leap forward and are nearing completion.
  

The Baltimore Banner recently published a piece about proposed legislation in front of the city council regarding the establishment of a land bank. Invest York Road was mentioned in the article as an example of models that empower locals to revitalize their neighborhoods in an inclusive way.

On a monthly basis, we post a high-level summary of work that has happened with Invest York Road (IYR) over the course of the previous month so that community members can stay informed about the progress being made.

Here are updates for the month of March:

• Working with our fiscal sponsor, GEDCO, IYR finalized the terms of our grant from the BRNI program, which will be applied towards our initial property acquisition.
• The IYR financial education team revised our class curriculum, based on their experience facilitating the classes over the past two years and feedback from attendees.
• Our team hosted representatives from the Brookings Institution, which is developing a program to support community-owned commercial real estate projects like IYR.
• In collaboration with our non-profit consultant we developed a plan for organizational policies, documentation and board handbook documentation.
• A team of students from Johns Hopkins started working with IYR to conduct research on commercial property usage in our service area.

On a monthly basis, we post a high-level summary of work that has happened with Invest York Road (IYR) over the course of the previous month so that community members can stay informed about the progress being made.

Here are updates for the month of February:

• As we continue to advance our organizational development work, we started a relationship with a professional non-profit consultant who is helping us with all aspects of building out our new entity.
  
• With the support of that consultant and the review of our steering committee, we are almost done refining our bylaws in preparation of our 501(c)(3) application.
• There were two community info sessions in February at which we shared information with interested community members.
• Invest York Road showed up at a Loyola-sponsored community event at Full Tilt Brewing, at which we also said farewell to our dear friend and collaborator, Sa'D Maxwell, who is moving on to start and run his own business. Sa'D was a great strategic partner, one of the creators of our financial and investment education program, a class facilitator, and great champion of Invest York Road. We will miss him, but we are excited to see him thrive in this next chapter of his life. Thank you, Sa'D, for all of your contributions!

On a monthly basis, we post a high-level summary of work that has happened with Invest York Road (IYR) over the course of the previous month so that community members can stay informed about the progress being made.

Here are updates for the month of January:

• After a nice break over the holidays, the community group building Invest York Road resumed its weekly work sessions.
• Invest York Road's community financial education program re-started after a break in December, offering a mix of online and in-person classes.
• Our financial education program team and community facilitators continued working to revise the curriculum and course content based on student feedback and class experience.
• We continued to explore approaches to capitalizing a Revolving Purchase Fund to facilitate more proactive community acquisition of properties.
• Our attorneys have been working on the incorporation and 501(c)(3) status application for the new Invest York Road organization.
• Invest York Road received a $2,500 grant from The Marigold Effect to support our community engagement efforts.
• Training began for a new team of community engagement facilitators to deepen the connection between Invest York Road and all parts of the service area.

On a monthly basis, we post a high-level summary of work that has happened with Invest York Road (IYR) over the course of the previous month so that community members can stay informed about the progress being made.

Here are updates for the month of December:

• After integrating the feedback from our community conversations earlier in 2022, we embarked on a multi-month process to incorporate the feedback into our model and organizational planning. Over the course of several meetings, we have integrated all of that work into the content of our founding organizational documents (articles of incorporation and bylaws), and will soon be applying for 501(c)(3) status.
• Community volunteers met with an accounting/bookkeeping consultant who will help us improve our organization's financial tracking system.
• Invest York Road was pleased to receive a 2023 grant from one of our original supporting funders, the Abell Foundation.
• One of Invest York Road's community volunteers was awarded an Elevation Award from Baltimore Corps, which will help support her work with Invest York Road.
• We ended the year with great momentum and high spirits, and are very much looking forward to continuing to move Invest York Road forward in 2023!

On a monthly basis, we post a high-level summary of work that has happened with Invest York Road (IYR) over the course of the previous month so that community members can stay informed about the progress being made.

Here are updates for the month of November:

• We ordered new Invest York Road-branded materials to support community engagement.
• Commercial real estate partners supporting our financial modeling efforts helped us revise our property finance evaluation tool.
• Multiple additional community info sessions were scheduled and held.
• We began planning a community facilitator program to train community members to educate area residents about IYR.
• IYR collaborated with a community member to apply for a Baltimore Corps Elevation Award.
• We participated in a focus group for the Community Control of Land effort.
• Facilitators for our financial and investment education program revised our curriculum in preparation for the upcoming year.
• Attorneys for IYR provided legal consultation on several organizational structure and financial instrument questions that arose through our community conversation process.
• IYR applied for a grant from the United Way of Central Maryland.