Community Science assisted the Knight Foundation in developing literature-backed metrics for its community-focused investments in areas that included downtown revitalization and public spaces. These investments are designed to revitalize downtown corridors and neighborhoods, foster equitable development, and increase the residents’ attachment to each other and their communities. We reviewed existing literature on downtown revitalization, equitable economic development, and public space activation, which we used, along with program directors’ goals and strategies, to map out pathways of change for six of the foundation’s focus communities and to recommend research-informed metrics. We met with the program directors to deepen their understanding of the metrics, increase their confidence with using research to strengthen their measurement strategy, and help them prioritize the metrics to track effectiveness. The program directors are now equipped to monitor their investments and ensure they are working to create the desired changes in an equitable way as local priorities shift and change. 00575
