Putting Faith in Neighborhoods: Making Cities Work through Grassroots Citizenship

As mayor of Indianapolis, Stephen Goldsmith saw firsthand that urban renewal begins with residents claiming responsibility for the future of their neighborhoods. In "Putting Faith in Neighborhoods," Goldsmith explains how Indianapolis invented a national model for creating vibrant urban centers through encouraging citizenship and engaging of faith-based organizations. He argues that social pathologies are best confronted not by large programs administered by government, but by citizens actively engaged in making their communities safer, more compassionate and more productive.

While serving two terms as mayor of Indianapolis, Stephen Goldsmith earned a national reputation for his innovations in government. As mayor of America's twelfth-largest city, he led a nationally acclaimed effort to rebuild the capacity of the city's neglected urban neighborhoods by eliminating counterproductive regulations, reducing taxes, and leading a one-billion-dollar Building Better Neighborhoods campaign. The resulting transformation of downtown Indianapolis and many nearby neighborhoods brought recognition to Indianapolis as a model for urban areas throughout the nation.

Many of the efforts to revitalize Indianapolis neighborhoods involved creative partnerships with private, secular, and faith-based groups. Called the "Front Porch Alliance," the partnership became a prototype for many faith-based efforts across the country and attracted the attention of government leaders from the president to governors and other mayors.

Goldsmith is now Special Advisor to President Bush on faith-based and not-for-profit initiatives and was appointed by the President to chair the Corporation For National and Community Service. He also served as chief domestic policy advisor to the Bush presidential campaign.

He currently serves as Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and e-Government for ACS Inc., Faculty Director for the Innovations in American Government program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and Chairman of the Manhattan Institute's Center for Civic Innovation.

Goldsmith is a 1968 graduate of Wabash College and received his law degree from the University of Michigan in 1971. He graduated with honors and served as Associate Editor of the University of Michigan Law Review.