Join us Tuesday, Sept. 22 from 1-3pm for a workshop and introduction to Collective Impact. We’ll discuss this framework for social change, how to do it, and share some lessons from the City Rising studio notebook.

Join us Thursday, Sept. 17 at 1pm for a conversation with Dr. Zelideh Martinez Hoy, as we discuss compassion fatigue, somatic awareness, cultural labor, and sustainable service.

City Rising is seeking an A/V artist, video artist, sound artist, multimedia artist, or interdisciplinary artist to create a series of short audiovisual works for Beyond These Gates: Remembering Home, the Prison, and a Place Yet to Be, a live public event exploring memory, incarceration, place, redevelopment, and possibility through the former site of the Indiana Women’s Prison in Indianapolis.

Access to timely, public information is essential for communities seeking to understand and respond to complex social challenges. That's why City Rising is proud to announce the launch of the new Indianapolis / Marion County Eviction Data Dashboard, developed in partnership with the Indy Housing Project and Anymouse.

The dashboard provides near real-time information about eviction filings across Marion County, offering residents, advocates, researchers, service providers, journalists, and policymakers a new tool for understanding housing instability in Indianapolis. Drawing from publicly available court records, the dashboard updates multiple times each week and allows users to explore eviction trends by neighborhood, ZIP code, census tract, and court, while also providing historical comparisons and downloadable datasets.

This August, the City Rising Social Impact Learning Series continues with two free public conversations exploring how communities can develop more equitable systems, more democratic approaches to resourcing, and more accessible public information tools. Each session brings together practitioners, researchers, and innovators who are actively building alternatives to conventional approaches to social impact.

Whether you work in philanthropy, nonprofit leadership, community organizing, public policy, research, or simply care about creating stronger communities, we invite you to join us for these free online learning conversations.

City Rising is seeking a Poetic Inquiry Data Artist to assist with Beyond These Gates. The application deadline in July 10, 2026, Learn more about this residency and access the application here.

While the word data often brings to mind spreadsheets, dashboards, and reporting requirements, we believe the most important role of data is helping us better understand people, relationships, experiences, and systems. When used thoughtfully, data can help organizations move beyond assumptions, identify emerging needs, strengthen strategy, communicate impact, and make more informed decisions.

Many collaborative efforts fail—not because the people involved lack commitment or skill, but because they are operating from a limited frame. When collaboration is built on a siloed or program-centered perspective, it often focuses too narrowly on individual organizational goals, isolated metrics, or short-term outputs. The result is coordination without meaningful change.

Introducing the City Rising Social Impact Learning Series

Across communities, leaders and organizations are working on issues that are becoming more complex while many traditional forms of support are in retreat. This moment calls for new ways of understanding social impact—approaches that help us see the relationships, assets, and conditions that shape whether meaningful progress becomes possible.

The City Rising Social Impact Learning Series is a new collection of free webinars designed for hands-on leaders, practitioners, and organizations seeking practical ways to strengthen their work. Each session shares tools, frameworks, and insights drawn from more than two decades of social impact practice, research, and project leadership.

Most people familiar with public health understand that social determinants of health (SDH) refer to "the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, and people's access to power, money and resources"—essentially anything non-medical that serves as the basis for health outcomes. What's crucial to understand is that 70% of our health outcomes result from these social determinants.

But here's the critical question: Where do the social determinants of health come from?

The word conspiracy comes from the Latin root conspirare, which means “to breathe together.” Being in a community with others and walking together in friendship requires understanding that relationships are essentially a shared commitment to “breathe together.”

Whether you are leading a nonprofit, running a social enterprise, or working within a public-serving organization, your ability to cultivate and sustain authentic relationships can determine the effectiveness of your work. But what does a relational strategy actually mean, and why should you invest in one?

Like relational community engagement’s focus on people’s assets — their gifts and resources — not just the things or services they may need, a relational practice should prioritize the desires, dreams, and aspirations of those who live within our communities. People often targeted for need-based services or equity-based interventions are rarely asked what they desire or dream about.