After a month where we’ve seen a massive outpouring of support by the U.S. business community for Japan’s tsunami and earthquake victims, the Chamber’s Business Civil Leadership Center is taking its leadership to another level by announcing a partnership agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) today.  The agreement is intended to establish a framework to leverage mutually-beneficial information, resources, and activities in order to advance our respective community development work.

This memorandum of understanding with HUD will benefit communities across the United States as we help the public and private sectors share information and work more closely together on projects of mutual interest.  The idea is that by building on our shared interests, we can create jobs and help our communities thrive.

The partnership will be managed under BCLC’s U.S. Corporate Community Investment Program, one of the organization’s three programs dedicated to issues related to business involvement in community development and social improvement.

Projected activities as a result of the partnership include:

• Convening mutual philanthropic stakeholders at regular intervals
• Establishing a method to simplify and streamline the process through which philanthropic partners in the private sector engage with HUD programs and policies
• Developing a platform for BCLC and HUD’s philanthropic and community experts to leverage ideas, lessons, and relationships in a manner that improves overall business participation in U.S. community development

As Dr. Raphael Bostic, HUD’s Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research, recently told me, “This agreement is built on the idea that working together produces so much more than working alone. This exciting partnership allows us to amplify the impact of public investments with those in the philanthropic world so that, together, we can achieve a more meaningful impact for those we serve.”