August 6, 2026 – From 2023 to 2025, NUMO, the New Urban Mobility Alliance, hosted by WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, collaborated with 15 communities in small and midsize cities across the United States as a partner in the Community Connectors program. The collaboration advanced efforts to repair the harm caused by highways and other transportation infrastructure often routed through marginalized communities.Through capacity-building grants and two years of technical assistance, the Community Connectors program supported diverse grassroots coalitions to address health, economic, mobility and other challenges in these communities. The program was led by Smart Growth America, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and implemented in collaboration with Horizon 54 (formerly Equitable Cities) and America Walks. It resulted in communities raising $150 million to build stronger community governance in cities affected by divisive transportation infrastructure.Using the ‘Good Start Approach,’ NUMO supported community-government coalitions in acknowledging past harms, building trust and developing shared values and a shared vision. After coalitions in each community defined their scopes of work, capacity-building grants were provided directly, allowing them to build social and civic community power in ways that best responded to their local context. Technical assistance emphasized equity, including anti-displacement strategies and equity-centered land-use analysis.The Community Connectors program was designed to change how transportation infrastructure is planned. It does this by acknowledging how past infrastructure decisions disproportionately affected communities of color and centering community needs, voices and leadership. Communities with a history of displacement and those that continue to experience the impacts of living adjacent to highways were prioritized. These impacts include increased air and noise pollution, higher rates of pedestrian injuries and fatalities, reduced access to jobs and amenities and lower home values.In 15 participating communities, NUMO helped local coalitions build legitimacy, strengthen partnerships and advance equity-centered visions for change. Several communities strengthened their governance structures, with leadership increasingly rooted in community-based organizations and reinforced by new staff, skills and resources. Demonstration projects and public events enabled residents and decision-makers to visualize alternatives to harmful infrastructure, generating momentum and public support.This work resulted in concrete outcomes, including policy advances, technical studies and successful funding applications at the local and federal levels. Notable wins include:A $600,000 U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Reconnecting Communities planning grant secured by Macon, Georgia, to reinvest in the Pleasant Hill neighborhood and provide access to groceries and other daily necessities without needing to cross a highway.A $1.6 million USDOT Reconnecting Communities planning grant secured by Our Streets in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to advance the Bring Back 6th! Campaign, which is working to replace a highway that displaced an integrated Black and Jewish community with a safer, more people-centered boulevard.A $102 million USDOT Neighborhood Access and Equity Program grant secured by Buffalo, New York, for the Bailey Avenue bus rapid transit corridor.A $2 million USDOT Neighborhood Access and Equity Program planning grant to Mundo Gardens in National City, California, for community engagement around the Southeast Greenspace Corridor.Together, these outcomes reflect stronger governance, enhanced technical capacity and deeper trust between communities and public agencies, laying the groundwork for long-term, community-driven infrastructure transformation.