Initiatives
Initiatives That Move Communities Forward
Levitate Institute develops and supports initiatives through a co-creation model. Some begin with a public partner’s vision, some with a community-identified need, and others with a capacity gap affecting smaller organizations. Across each initiative, the Institute helps build the partnerships, infrastructure, resources, learning systems, and implementation readiness needed for long-term impact.
How to start the journey
Identify the Opportunity
Build the Partnership
Design the Approach
Move Into
Action
Cradle-to-Career &
Economic Mobility Initiative
A City of Birmingham-led, community co-created initiative funded by the City of Birmingham and incubated through Levitate Institute to build a more coordinated ecosystem supporting young people from birth through career entry.
The Opportunity
Youth success is shaped by many interconnected factors—from early childhood development, family support, education, safety, mentorship, and enrichment to postsecondary pathways, workforce readiness, and access to meaningful first-career opportunities. Across Birmingham, organizations and leaders are already doing important work at different stages of that continuum. The opportunity is to better connect those efforts around shared priorities, stronger partnerships, community voice, and a long-term vision for economic mobility.
The Institute’s Role
Levitate Institute provides the administrative infrastructure for the initiative and hosts the Executive leading its development. Through that structure, the Institute supports strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, partnership development, governance and accountability design, performance measurement, funding alignment, and implementation readiness in collaboration with the City of Birmingham. The Institute’s role is not to replace work already happening across Birmingham, but to help build the alignment, infrastructure, and capacity needed for strong work to become more connected, sustainable, and positioned for long-term investment.
Birmingham Goes Home
Birmingham Goes Home is an initiative designed to reduce homelessness by connecting individuals experiencing housing instability with housing opportunities, supportive services, and resources that promote long-term stability. Supported by a $1 million private grant awarded to Levitate Institute by Community Solutions, the initiative aims to help 50 individuals transition out of unsheltered homelessness and prevent their return to homelessness.
The Opportunity
Addressing homelessness requires more than temporary solutions. Individuals experiencing homelessness often face interconnected barriers to securing and maintaining stable housing, including limited housing availability, financial challenges, and gaps in coordinated supportive services.
Birmingham Goes Home addresses these challenges through a coordinated approach that includes housing assistance, landlord engagement, stabilization services, and rapid resolution strategies. The initiative is designed to remove barriers to housing, accelerate transitions into stable living environments, and strengthen the systems that help individuals remain housed.
The Institute’s Role
As the grant recipient, Levitate Institute serves as the initiative’s fiscal and administrative partner, providing the infrastructure necessary to manage funding, administer contracts, coordinate with service providers, and support financial accountability and program reporting.
The initiative is being implemented in partnership with the City of Birmingham’s Division of Unhoused Strategies, which led the program’s design and is guiding its implementation in collaboration with local service providers and community partners. Through this partnership, Levitate Institute is helping translate strategic investments into coordinated action, strengthening the partnerships and infrastructure needed to create sustainable solutions to homelessness in Birmingham.
The Levitate Way Training Series
A capacity-building initiative designed to expand access to practical training, tools, templates, and thought partnership for community-based organizations, nonprofits, and grassroots leaders.
The Opportunity
Smaller and under-resourced organizations are often doing critical work in their communities while operating with limited access to the training, technical assistance, and organizational infrastructure available to larger institutions. Greater access to practical capacity-building support can help organizations strengthen operations, improve funding readiness, build stronger systems, and sustain their impact over time.
The Institute’s Role
Through the Levitate Way Training Series, Levitate Institute develops and delivers accessible training, practical tools, templates, and learning opportunities designed to strengthen organizational capacity. The Institute places particular emphasis on making high-quality capacity-building resources available to organizations and leaders that might not otherwise have access to comprehensive training and technical support.
Training Focus Areas
Rooted to Rise
An emerging permanent supportive housing initiative focused on strengthening long-term housing stability and coordinated wraparound support for individuals and families experiencing homelessness in Birmingham.
The Opportunity
Long-term housing stability often requires more than temporary shelter. Individuals and families may need coordinated access to housing, supportive services, case management, health resources, employment pathways, legal and documentation assistance, and other wraparound supports. The opportunity is to build a permanent supportive housing model that brings those resources together in a more coordinated and sustainable way.
The Institute’s Role
Levitate Institute is supporting the incubation of Rooted to Rise in partnership with its Board of Directors and other local stakeholders to help ensure that the permanent supportive housing initiative is launched and implemented in a sustainable manner. The Institute is supporting early planning, organizational development, stakeholder engagement, governance, funding strategy, program design, partnership development, and other capacity-building needs necessary to move the initiative from concept toward implementation.
Levitate Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit expanding access to training, partnerships, and infrastructure that help communities and community-serving organizations move meaningful work forward. EIN:Â 33-1391159
Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.