Broad Community Connections

Broad Community Connections is a non-profit, community development organization devoted to revitalizing the Broad Street as a vibrant, equitable, and inclusive commercial corridor by promoting the health and economic, residential, and cultural development of its diverse surrounding neighborhoods.

Broad Community Connections (BCC) is a non-profit, community development organization devoted to revitalizing Broad Street as a vibrant, equitable, and inclusive commercial corridor by promoting the health, economic, residential, and cultural development of its diverse neighborhoods. Community members founded BCC in 2008 to address long-standing community revitalization needs along the Broad Street corridor exacerbated by Hurricane Katrina. For over a decade, BCC has focused its work on supporting small business owners and growing the number local small business along the Broad Street corridor, convening cross-sector stakeholders to address community development and health needs in the area, and on developing catalytic real estate development projects such as the ReFresh Project, our Community Health Hub located at 300 N Broad Street.

In addition to its work on corridor revitalization, BCC also developed and leads the ReFresh Collaborative, a collective impact initiative of 60 cross-sector partners and community members. The Collaborative's goal is to achieve health equity along the N. Broad Street corridor so that all people who live in Refresh neighborhoods will experience their highest physical, mental, social and emotional health potential regardless of social position. We are particularly focused on addressing racial health and wealth disparities and supporting the needs and wants of low-income community members of color.

BCC is proud to have the following impact over the past decade and is looking forward to continuing this work into the future:
- $33 million invested in high-impact community real estate development projects, including the ReFresh Project and the Rose Collaborative
- $1.3 million secured for streetscape projects on Broad at Greenway and Bayou Road
- 100,000+ sq/ft of blighted/vacant property back into commerce
- $40,000 in direct grants to small business owners for The Iconic Signage Project, an ongoing partnership with local artists and businesses
- 300 jobs created via the ReFresh Project + Rose Collaborative
- 120 small businesses organized, attracted or supported on Broad Street
- 35 community-based organizations meeting monthly at the Refresh project to share
information and resources
- Over 300 neighborhood youth ages 8-12 served through ReFresh Kids programming, including gardening, culinary, and nutrition education across three partner organizations
- Over 70 local Spanish speakers served through ReFresh Latinx health and nutrition programming coordinated by BCC across four partner organizations
- Data collected from 200 neighbors living near the ReFresh Project through a community-based participatory research project in partnership with Tulane University 
- Convened over 500 organizations in monthly information-sharing meetings designed to promote communication and collaboration across local non-profits
- Convened and led over 40 partners in monthly discussions on race and racism over the past three years
- Hosted free neighborhood-wide events, including free movie nights on the ReFresh Project rooftop and in neighbors' lawns, socials in the ReFresh Community Garden, and Bike Fest.