Invest York Road has launched a monthly email newsletter as a part of its overall efforts to inform the community about its work and progress.

See the first installment of the newsletter here.

And sign up to receive the newsletter 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 community members can stay informed about the progress being made.

Here are updates for the month of January:

• IYR launched an email newsletter as a new channel for communicating with the community about its work. If you want to receive monthly updates and exciting news about our progress, sign up here.
  
• We concluded our latest collaboration with Johns Hopkins University's CityLab students, who uncovered insights about local demographics, potential investor audiences, and storytelling and community engagement opportunities.
  
• A new intern joined us to support our stakeholder mapping project, which is documenting community leaders, organizations, and others who are invested in - and impacted by - IYR's work.
  

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.

December closed out an enormously productive year for Invest York Road, as we continued to lay the groundwork for more huge leaps forward in 2025. We are expecting to close on the acquisition of our first property early in the coming year, while also conducting our first community investment campaign. Success on both of these fronts will mean an increase in local business activity along the York Road corridor, the restoration of a building in much need of repair, and an opportunity for local residents to be partial owners of a commercial real estate property in their neighborhood.

IYR could not have come this far without the dedication and passion of local community members and a great team moving this work forward, and we look forward to elevating and revitalizing York Road with you in 2025!

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:

• IYR hosted a successful "snack-and-chat" event at the local HEX Superette that had wonderful turn out and engagement from neighbors and other community stakeholders interested in learning more about Invest York Road.
• We engaged another great group of students from the CityLab program at Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business to help with research and engagement work in the corridor.
• Our ongoing administrative build out continues as we prepare to manage both a community investment campaign and our first property redevelopment project in the new year.

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 October:

• As a part of our ongoing process of refreshing our materials, we worked with a designer to create a new flyer to advertise our free community financial education classes.
• Our community engagement team tabled at the York Road Music & Arts Festival and other local events.
• In the ongoing predevelopment process for our first project property, we hired an architect to begin the process of developing a new site plan and building design.

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 September:

• Invest York Road finalized a purchase-and-sale agreement with the owner of the first property we are attempting to bring into community ownership. We also secured the balance of the acquisition capital we needed to make that happen. We are resolving some outstanding issues, and are hoping to close on the property in the next three to six months.
• IYR has started the process of redesigning some of its communications materials. We have finished a redesign of our class outreach flyers, and will soon start our website redesign process with an audit of the current site by a marketing professional who will provide recommendations for its improvement.
• Our community engagement team recently participated at the Roots & Roofs event and the Beyond Boundaries Civic Engagement & Democracy Conference, and had a lot of great conversations with community members.
• Invest York Road has a fantastic group of advisors, many of whom recently convened to get updated on our acquisition efforts and provide very helpful input on our next steps.

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 August:

• The most exciting development this month was that Invest York Road secured the capital needed to purchase the property it has been pursuing. There are still details to be resolved, but IYR is getting closer to completing the acquisition and bringing that first property into community ownership.
  
• In news that was almost as exciting, IYR received notice from the IRS that it had received 501(c)(3) status, making it an official federally recognized non-profit organization.
• Other work has been ongoing, including our steering committee's implementation of recommendations that came out of our recent strategic planning session and from our communications task force.

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:

• Invest York Road's recently hired community engagement coordinators started and are already working on deepening and broadening IYR's relationships in the community.
• We received grants from Project Restore to support our first redevelopment project and from the Baltimore Community Foundation to support operations associated with that project.
• IYR's work on its first property acquisition continued through the due diligence and initial capital raise stages of the process.

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:

• We held our last round of free community financial education classes until the fall.
  
• As a part of our efforts to acquire an initial property, IYR has engaged a development consultant to help manage our purchase and renovation efforts.
• In order to advance our work and evolve our organization, the IYR Steering Committee had a strategic planning session to make sure our work continues to be in full support of, and alignment with, our mission, vision, and values. This session also helped set our plans for the next stage of the project.
• IYR was also very excited to engage two new community engagement specialists to enhance our work with the broader community.

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:

• For the past several years, IYR has collaborated with groups of students from John Hopkins University's CityLab program. We wrapped up another project round with a new group that updated our vacant property inventory and did some research on community leader perspectives.
  
• IYR is a member of SHARE Baltimore, and attended SHARE's retreat to discuss strategies for accelerating community-owned real estate in the city.
  
• We continued to build out our financial reporting and budget tracking infrastructure with the support of an accountant and bookkeeper.