But until recently, community members were often not supported to join decision-making tables or exercise meaningful influence.

Some recent programs include mechanisms for increasing influence of community members in the design and implementation of grant funding -- requiring governance boards representative of diverse community interests, engaging community members as service providers and champions, or delegating decision-making with respect to program funds.

They still may not have gone so far as to empower community members to hold other stakeholders accountable, to center people over agency-specific policies and practices, or to amplify and invest in resident power.

Although some place-based program grantees have built relationships and shared resources with community partners that invest in local power-building, federal programs generally have not encouraged or required them to do so.