Our Work

RPOP’s past programming focused on resident engagement, community building, and shared learning as foundations for wealth building activities.

2020 Russell for Russell Resident Coalition (R4R)
R4R included 26 Black Russell residents ranging in age from 22 yrs to 72 yrs. Together, the group co-created strategies that support Black wealth building and lead to investment without displacement of residents or businesses. The work of the group led to the development and co-authoring of the Russell Partnership Pledge.

2021-2023 Russell Workgroups
Over two years, 40 Russell residents participated in workgroups focused on defining RPOP’s future organizational form and the development of the 30th and Madison Street Property. Workgroups engaged in shared learning about community ownership options, made decisions about RPOP’s future incorporation, traveled to visit model organizations in cities across the US, and participated in site planning and tenant development activities. Workgroups made decisions using RPOP’s Russell Partnership Pledge as a guiding document.

Community Based Organization (CBO) Learning Circle
This program was focused on strengthening CBOs in and around Russell through collective learning and network building.

Russell Futures Learning Lab
This four-month program invited Russell residents and other supporters to learn more about RPOP’s housing strategy, including the creation of a community land trust. The group learned more about housing in Russell and created a set of shared values and recommendations for where RPOP should invest in new housing in Russell using Louisville Metro Land Bank properties. The Learning Lab benefited from the support of a group of masters-level students from the University of Kentucky’s College of Architecture who helped translate residents’ vision into housing models and maps that informed decision-making.

Canvassing & Pop Ups
The RPOP team popped in and up to connect and build relationships with residents and businesses throughout Russell.

RPOP Ambassador Program
Russell residents were invited to work with RPOP team members at community events, support office projects, and participate in canvassing. RPOP Ambassadors were compensated for their time.

Community Dinners
RPOP hosted dinners for Russell residents and community members to hear updates about RPOP’s work and to connect with their neighbors.

Neighbor Circle
‍This program was focused on strengthening connections between Russell residents, promoting resources and education for homeowners, homebuyers and renters, and sharing information about topics of interest to attendees.

Young Leaders Academy
RPOP worked with the Coalition Supporting Young Adults to create and facilitate an interactive 9-week program designed to help young leaders cultivate personal leadership skills, gain a better understanding of what community means, and grow their advocacy skills to make impactful change in their communities.

Summer Learning Series
This program explored new concepts of community ownership and wealth building, including community land trusts, cooperatives and guaranteed income/universal basic income, in a shared learning environment that included RPOP team members, Russell residents and local and national individuals and organizations with expertise in each of the topic areas. These conversations helped shape RPOP's strategies and decision-making related to its future organizational form, ownership models and the YALift! Program. Summer Learning Series programs took place virtually and in person in Summer 2021 and 2022.

RPOP Ambassador Program
This program invites Russell residents to work with RPOP staff at various community engagement events and support other outreach activities such as canvassing. Resident Ambassadors are compensated for their time.

RPOP is heavily guided by the voices of Russell residents and other members of the Russell community. We believe that relationship building is the foundation of our ability to hold space for shared learning and resident leadership and decision making. Since 2018, RPOP has hosted many events, large and small, virtual and in-person, canvassed the Russell neighborhood, and conducted neighborhood “pop-ups” featuring resources and RPOP swag.

Our signature event is Our Home: Russell Homecoming Weekend, an annual weekend-long celebration of Russell residents, and the neighborhood’s history and future. Each year, we partner with community based organizations, Black business owners, and residents to curate a family-friendly weekend full of community building, parties, entertainment, food, neighborhood tours, shopping, art, storytelling and more.

Our Home: Russell Homecoming Weekend
RPOP's annual weekend celebration of Russell's residents, history and future. Each year we partner with community organizations and Black owned businesses to curate a family friendly weekend full of community building, parties, entertainment, food, shopping, art and more!

Juneteenth
RPOP hosted an annual Juneteenth event in 2020, 2021 and 2022. These celebrations focused on the history of Juneteenth and offered family-friendly activities such as arts and crafts, music, children’s programming, a vendor fair, food and more. In 2023, RPOP supported partner MELANnaire Marketplace’s Juneteenth event.

One of RPOP’s biggest priorities is to amplify the voices of Russell residents and preserve the stories of their experiences living in Russell through art, written words, and other media. RPOP believes that art and storytelling are essential to centering the culture of Russell and to celebrating its collective history.

The Russell Storytelling Project
The RSP included ten storytellers - four advisors and six artists and writers - who were selected to amplify the stories of Russell residents through various artistic mediums. Beginning in July 2022, RPOP staff and RSP storytellers met weekly for six weeks to engage in community building, shared learning, and reimagining. The team created a community agreement and learned together during art-centered workshops created and led by the four RSP advisors. Following these workshops, the six RSP artists and writers were each paired with five Russell residents and charged with conducting interviews and collecting resident stories that informed the creation of mixed media art and storytelling that celebrates Russell and its residents. RPOP hosted a public exhibit of these pieces in Russell and plans to put them on permanent display at 30th and Madison Street. Learn more.

For the People Next Door Book (Download)
Containing art, photography, poetry and more, this book reflects the process, participants and products created during the Russell Storytelling Project.

Resident Narratives
In 2021, RPOP interviewed three Russell residents to document their stories of living in Russell.
Click Here to ListenBetty Baye'
Markham French
Chandra

Take This! Photo Voice Exhibit
‍This exhibit gave young people a chance to document the impact of Guaranteed Income on their lives. The photos taken by participants were displayed in a public exhibit and RPOP plans to put them on permanent display at 30th and Madison Street.

Keep Going Scholarship

RPOP believes in supporting young Black students as they grow their intellectual wealth. The Keep Going Scholarship Fund was established with support from Cities United and the Youth Resistance Collective with grant support from the Public Welfare Foundation. The Fund honors the life of Travis Nadgy, a 21-year-old social justice leader in Louisville who lost his life in late 2020. The Scholarship is administered by the Community Foundation of Louisville.
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The Keep Going Scholarship Fund was established by Cities United and the Youth Resistance Collective, with grant support from the Public Welfare Foundation, to honor the life of Travis Nagdy, a 21 year-old social justice leader in Louisville who lost his life in late 2020. The Scholarship is administered by RPOP and is housed at the Community Foundation of Louisville.

Travis was beloved by the community. His optimism and motivational activism, highlighted in his signature motto "Keep Going!" was vital to the social justice uprisings in Louisville and across the country in 2020. This scholarship recognizes his fight for justice and the continued pursuit of justice by Louisville youth. Specifically, this Fund is designed to provide scholarship assistance in the form of grants to help defray college or university expenses of black students from West Louisville, Kentucky.

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RPOP is currently involved in developing property in Russell for housing, business, and community uses. All RPOP’s place-based investments are rooted in the vision and values of Russell residents.

RPOP & REBOUND - Housing
RPOP partnered with REBOUND, Inc., a Black-led affordable housing developer that got its start through the Louisville Urban League, to build homes in Russell for families who are interested in moving from renting to owning or who want to return to Russell. These include single-family, owner-occupied duplex, and townhome style units.

30th & Madison
This 5-acre property is RPOP’s flagship investment in Russell. The land, once a cigar manufacturing operation, has been formally dedicated to RPOP by its owner, Louisville Metro Government, to be developed for the Russell community. The project has been planned in partnership with Russell residents, and will host residential, office, retail, food, recreation, services and other uses, and will offer multiple pathways for resident ownership.

Russell Community Land Trust
The Russell Community Land Trust (RCLT) is a community-driven initiative to create permanently affordable owner-occupied housing in Russell, a strategy that prioritizes the people and places of Russell through investment without displacement. The RCLT plans to acquire at least 75 properties from the Louisville Metro Land Bank to invest in new housing opportunities for Russell. This effort ensures long-term affordability, supports homeownership, and gives residents a direct stake in Russell’s future.

Home Repair Program
‍This program was for Russell homeowners, ages 55+ or who experienced a disability, in need of home repairs. This program was offered in partnership with Repair Affair, a program of New Directions Housing Corporation.

Russell Small Business Accelerator Program
This program was designed to foster the creation and strengthening of Black businesses and entrepreneurs, particularly those who were located in Russell or the West End. The Accelerator offered participants a chance to solidify their business operations, increase resilience, build a network of peers, and learn from other Black business professionals about key aspects of business ownership. Each graduate received a friends and family-style investment in their business upon program completion.

Childcare Business Accelerator Program
‍This program focused on existing, center-based early childhood education and development businesses in and near Russell through a partnership with Play Cousins Collective and Metro United Way’s Ready for K Alliance. Participating centers received staff training hours, opportunities to build and keep community and culture with other participants, and access to free professional services to strengthen business operations. Each center received a friends and family-style investment in their business upon program completion.

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‍‍This project was funded through a $3 million grant from JPMorgan Chase’s Advancing Cities Program, and focused on scaling entry-level tech talent from historically underrepresented populations and geographies while creating a more connected community of wraparound service providers focused on supporting job seekers. RPOP partnered with Metro United Way and a number of other community organizations to implement this project.

YaLift! Guaranteed Income Pilot
‍YALift! offered 150 young adults, ages 18 to 24, in Louisville's Russell, California and Smoketown neighborhoods an opportunity to receive $500 per month for a year to demonstrate the many benefits of providing a basic income for all individuals. Modeled on programs in Stockton, California, and Jackson, Mississippi, YALift! funding came with no restrictions, giving recipients full control over spending it to meet their own unique needs. This program was a partnership between RPOP, the Metro United Way, Louisville Metro Government, Mayors for Guaranteed Income and numerous community partners who were essential in bringing a level of trust and community voice to the design of the pilot.

Place of Promise Convening (POP Convening)
In Spring 2018, partners Cities United, Louisville Metro Government and the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust partnered to host a preview event for local and national funders and thought leaders to test the concept of RPOP. This event was key to RPOP securing its seed funding.

In Spring 2023, RPOP hosted its second convening for local and national funders and thought leaders to learn about RPOP's work and how far we’ve come since we launched in 2018

RPOP believes in learning alongside residents as we grow our collective knowledge, and has developed resources to promote opportunities to help us explore grow together.

Political Conversations
RPOP hosted a series of virtual learning sessions featuring local elected officials discussing a range of issues and policies identified as significant to the Russell community. These events gave Russell residents a chance to engage directly with individuals representing them, to ask questions and gain a better understanding of the political system.

Virtual Library
As part of the support offered to participants in the Russell for Russell Resident Coalition and RPOP’s Workgroups, RPOP created a shared virtual library with resources related to RPOP's wealth building pathways, our national models, and more. This living resource will continue to grow as RPOP engages in ongoing shared learning with Russell residents.

Ujamaa Workbook (Download)
The Ujamaa Workbook was co-written by RPOP team members and Play Cousins Collective to engage Black children and families in activities focused on generational wealth. Readers can go on a journey with main character, Harmony, as she learns about community building, cooperative economics, saving money, Black inventors, gardening and more from her village.

2018 - 2021 Impact Report (Download)
The 2018 - 2021 Impact Report was written by RPOP team members to share RPOP's story from 2018 to 2021.

RPOP creates space for residents to have a significant voice in shaping their community. Through the Russell Partnership Pledge and our role as an accountability partner, we have united the voices of hundreds of residents and shifted the language and awareness of many community organizations and the broader community on the importance of centering resident voice and leadership. We have influenced the strategic direction and plans of major institutions, including our former fiscal sponsor and our city government.

The dual impacts of COVID-19 and state violence have greatly impacted Russell and our work. We have become more vocal advocates for justice, equity, and the prioritization of resident voices in making decisions that impact their lives and their spaces. We have developed a robust online presence and the ability to manage complex, long-running, intergenerational programs in virtual and in-person spaces. We have cared for our community by providing safe and joyful events, protected time and resources for self-care, and created a sense of belonging and family in Russell.

As we engage in our work, we will use our voices and our relationships to continue to advocate for policies, programs, and resources to be directed in ways that align with Russell resident priorities and to make investments that reflect the vision of and will be beloved by Russell residents.

Our Work

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