As a lifelong policy advocate, I don’t often get the chills. But this week in Kansas City, I did.

I was lucky enough to attend the second stop in the White House Office of Urban Affairs Listening Tour, which brought Obama Administration officials to help kick off the Kansas City Green Impact Zone, a “comprehensive, place-based plan to invest public and private funding to transform a neighborhood plagued by high rates of poverty and violence, unemployment, and abandoned property.” (Read more about the Zone here.)

It was moving to see top federal officials — like HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan; Transportation Deputy Secretary John Porcari; White House Urban Affairs Director Adolfo Carrion; and Special Advisor for Green Jobs Van Jones — on hand to really listen to the ideas and innovations of local leaders. There is a change afoot in how the federal government thinks of cities and metropolitan areas.

The Green Impact Zone — inspired by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, coordinated by the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC), and funded in part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act– promises to be a shining example of what we can do with coordinated, cross-sector investments in housing, transportation, energy efficiency, and workforce training.

But, perhaps most important, it could be a model for how the federal government and local innovators can work together to make sure all Americans can live in communities of opportunity.

I don’t think these chills will be going away any time soon.

The $787 billion recovery package marks a big, bold and historic investment in creating green jobs and building more equitable communities. The package invests nearly $100 billion in funding for transportation and infrastructure, $48 billion in investments in job training and education, $41 billion for energy-related programs, and $20 billion in tax incentives for renewable energy.

But without substantial advocacy from local and state groups, these historic federal investments may not end up in the communities that need them most. That is why PolicyLink and Green for All are excited to release today a new report, “Bringing Home the Green Recovery: A User’s Guide to the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.”

The in-depth guide offers tangible, up-to-date information and ideas for using and securing recovery dollars to help expand opportunity in low-income communities and communities of color.

The guide is a first step in what will be a vital nationwide effort to ensure the recovery package helps all communities rise stronger than ever from this economic crisis, and that community based organizations are at the forefront in crafting a green, equitable recovery.

A recap of this week’s equity news 

“N.A.A.C.P. Calls for Economic Equity,” - New York Times

BALTIMORE — The N.A.A.C.P. celebrated its centennial Thursday by calling on the Obama administration and Congress to spend more on education, establish a nine-month moratorium on foreclosures and ensure that the stimulus package is distributed equitably.

Federal lawmakers must guarantee fair hiring practices for new jobs at a time when black unemployment — consistently higher than it is for whites — is in double digits, the group said in a 38-page report describing its policy goals for the year.

“Wal-Mart eyes 12 Chicago ‘food desert’ sites,” - Chicago Sun-Times 

Wal-Mart is scouting 12 properties in Chicago’s “food desert” neighborhoods for new stores that sell groceries, a Wal-Mart spokesman said Friday.

About 500,000 Chicagoans live in food deserts with no easy access to mainstream grocery stores.

“Mixed-income housing debated,” - The Times-Picayune

Angela Glover Blackwell argued that a person’s neighborhood has become a proxy for his social mobility. Affluent areas tend to offer access to jobs, public transit, grocery stores and quality public education, and their residents often have longer life expectancy than those in poorer neighborhoods.

Blackwell said developers often try to lift up struggling areas by introducing market-rate apartments and hoping they will attract professional people who have a choice of where to live. But she said such a strategy sends the wrong message, by telegraphing that revitalization cannot come at the hands of the people who already live there.