Inclusive Housing Webinar Series Part 2 – Building Partnerships to Create Affordable, Inclusive Housing and Community Engagement: Lessons Learned from the Main Street Experience

It took a village to create Main Street, an affordable, inclusive housing and membership-based community in Rockville, MD, that opened in 2020. Founder Jillian Copeland will share Main Street’s story of bringing together people with disabilities, families, government (city, county and state), donors, academics, private entities and other community stakeholders to develop a housing model that offers community, affordability, inclusivity, accessibility and choice.

The webinar will discuss how public/private partnerships can produce innovative and localized approaches for expanding integrated housing and community connection for people with disabilities and other marginalized groups. University of Maryland researchers will highlight the need for further research to advance policy and development of inclusive communities and independent living opportunities for adults with disabilities.

Training Objectives: 

• Define the how and why of creating partnerships with varied sectors of society (government, business, health and mental wellness, education, the arts, recreation, retail, etc.) to further efforts to create affordable and inclusive communities.
• Identify funding strategies used by Main Street and other similar projects to build and sustain affordable, inclusive housing and communities including Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and membership-based community programming.
• Consider how the Main Street model could be replicated in whole or in part in other communities across the U.S.