By Greg Micek

When former President Barack Obama introduced the Promise Zone initiative in his 2013 State of the Union address, the idea seemed straightforward: A child’s ZIP code should not determine their future. Yet across the country, neighborhoods marked by poverty and disinvestment continued to miss out on crucial resources and support. The solution Obama proposed was not simply more funding — it was collaboration. 

The initiative aimed to increase public-private partnerships in marginalized communities. The goals included expanding economic opportunity, improving education and health care access, reducing crime, and building long-term capacity for improvements. It gave local leaders tools to collaborate more effectively and build upon the work already happening in the community.

Now, 10 years after it began, Sacramento’s Promise Zone designation is set to expire this month. As the official label fades, what remains is a network of relationships, hard-won lessons and a renewed focus on place-based collaboration.

Sacramento was one of just 22 communities across the country — and the only one in Northern California — to receive the Promise Zone designation. The initiative provided preference points on federal grants, a dedicated federal liaison to help navigate government programs and full-time AmeriCorps VISTA members to support local partners.

“It seemed like a simple concept,” said Julius Austin, Promise Zone manager with the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA). “Collaborate more to create greater impact and focus more on the marginalized or underserved areas of our community. But both concepts are very complex.”

It takes a network 

Sacramento’s 22-square-mile Promise Zone — encompassing parts of South Sacramento, Oak Park and the River District — was identified based on 2010 census data. The need in the area was evident. “The poverty rate was 34%. The unemployment rate was 19%. And the life expectancy in Promise Zone census tracts was 72 years — five years shorter than just outside those areas,” Austin said.

For SHRA and its partners, the objective was not to invent new solutions but to build connective tissue between the efforts already underway by local organizations. The goal was to cultivate an administrative environment where organizations could work together more effectively to address deeply ingrained disparities.

According to Austin, the focus was holistic from the start. It encompassed education, health, economic development, workforce development and sustainable communities. “If I’m focused on education, I also need to know what’s happening with transportation, housing or food access,” he said. “Because the people I’m serving need all of those things to succeed.”

Sometimes that meant providing support for grants, making a strategic introduction between community leaders or helping organizations navigate complex government processes. Other times, it meant connecting dots across sectors. Linking health initiatives to housing programs, or educational efforts to economic development, for example. The goal was to weave together what was often siloed.

In total, the Promise Zone helped secure over $180 million in funding for dozens of local organizations, including nonprofits of all sizes.

One example was the Sacramento Promise Zone Literacy Initiative, a partnership between SHRA and the Sacramento Literacy Foundation. As of 2024, the collaboration has distributed more than 100,000 books to K-3 aged children in Promise Zone neighborhoods. Far from being a random assortment of reading material, the books were chosen to be culturally relevant and reflective of the communities they served.

“A huge percentage of students and families that live in marginalized areas do not own a single book that they can call their own,” Austin said. “When a student owns even one book, they have improved literacy and improved interest in reading.”

Stephen Norris is the California government contracts director at Sacramento-based Juma Ventures, an organization that provides financial literacy and job training to young adults facing barriers. He said the Promise Zone program benefited Juma in ways that extended far beyond the funding it received.

“Not only did we receive funding, but it allowed us to build deeper relationships with credit unions and banks,” Norris said, adding that the support strengthened Juma’s financial literacy programming for young adults, and in turn, those partnerships brought in volunteers who served as financial coaches that helped youth participate in financial education panels and set financial goals.

Alchemist CDC, a nonprofit focused on food access and economic opportunity, received funding multiple times via Promise Zone initiatives. Its executive director, Sam Greenlee, said Promise Zone made it possible for his organization to launch Alchemist Kitchen, a food entrepreneurship program that trains underserved residents on how to start and scale small businesses.

“The Promise Zone was directly responsible for making it possible for us to do that whole program,” Greenlee said.

Alchemist CDC is now developing the Alchemist Public Market, a nearly 1-acre, all-electric campus in Sacramento’s River District. The project is scheduled to open in summer 2026 and will feature a shared-use commercial kitchen, a cafe with workforce training and a retail shop carrying locally made products and grocery staples. Weekly farmers’ and night markets are also planned to help address food access gaps in the area and provide sales opportunities for local producers.

Greenlee said the site was deliberately located within Sacramento’s Promise Zone to strengthen its connection to community revitalization efforts. “It helped indicate that this place has been identified as an area in need of investment,” he said. “For funders, it’s one good metric to use to identify that this is a community that should be invested in.”

Not every project had to be a large-scale development to leave a lasting impact. Rebuilding Together Sacramento is a nonprofit that assists low-income households with safety-focused home repairs. In 2020, the organization received a $73,500 Promise Zone grant — just as COVID-19 disrupted operations. A planned workforce training component had to be scaled back, but the community still benefitted. 

Executive Director Bonnie Patterson said her team was able to secure most of the funding and put it to use. “We redirected the funds toward installing ramps, modified steps, and custom railings for older adults in the Promise Zone community,” she said.

Patterson’s organization often works in partnership with local code enforcement to keep vulnerable residents in their homes. It illustrates how seemingly small actions can have significant impacts on someone’s life. “Sometimes we are the last hope for a lot of these people,” Patterson said. “We want to create affordable housing but also keep people in the homes they already have. If a heater goes out, code enforcement can say it’s uninhabitable, so we get called in. We want people to be able to stay in their homes.”

Lasting impact

Federal data suggests broader changes are happening within Sacramento’s Promise Zone. Between 2010 and 2020, the zone’s population grew by 19,000 people. The poverty rate dropped from 34% to 25.7%, and unemployment fell from 19% to 9.4%. Life expectancy rose by nearly four years, from 72 to 76.

Austin was cautious to not overstate Promise Zone’s role in local improvements. “We can’t say it happened because of the Promise Zone,” he said. “But I’m confident saying it happened in the Promise Zone, and that the collaborative work helped make it possible.”

Perhaps the lasting impact of the Promise Zone will not be measured in books delivered or homes repaired, but in what it helped normalize: collaboration, alignment and a shared commitment to place. Now, as the federal Promise Zone designation officially ends, that spirit of collaboration will be put to the test.

Austin remains optimistic about the future of the neighborhoods within the zone; with or without an official title.

“Whether there is a Promise Zone or not, the promise continues,” he said. “As long as leaders in Sacramento commit to collaborating and focusing on underserved areas, this work can — and should — go on.”

After all, the label was never the point. “We were doing Promise Zone work before the Promise Zone, and we’ll keep doing it,” Austin said. “The Promise Zone will always be happening.”

This story was written and photographed by Greg Micek, a student at Sacramento State.
This story is part of the Solving Sacramento journalism collaborative. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, Capital Public Radio, Outword, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review, Sacramento Observer and Univision 19. Support stories like these here, and sign up for our monthly newsletter.