Stress personal AND social responsibility.

Sweeping generalizations on the genesis of poverty (bad personal decisions v. lack of equal opportunity and other environmental issues) are useless and fundamentally flawed.  Both are true to varying degrees in different individuals, different families and different communities.

Prioritize neighborhoods that step up.

By giving priority to neighborhoods that commit to contribute their own resources (labor, financial, and otherwise) we maximize effectiveness in expenditure of resources.  This approach represents the best of conservative and liberal thinking with fundamental philosophy stressing personal responsibility & self-determination.

One of the first things we did as a newly formed organization is a Local Roundtable discussion on the topic of economic segregation.  You can read the entire report here .  Here are some of the lessons we learned:
 

Schools that serve neighborhoods with high concentrations of poverty are more expensive to operate; research links living in high-poverty areas (independent of individual characteristics) with dropping out of high school, teen pregnancy, unemployment, and incarceration... all expenses the society ultimately bears.

...the inside game (thriving urban neighborhoods) succeeds because the outside game (controlling sprawl and growth) succeeds.

according to the "suburban dependency hypothesis. 

Change, both negative and positive, can happen all at once if they seek a positive tipping point or avoid a negative one.  By utilizing the power of a tipping point, little and possibly less expensive change can make a huge difference.  Leaders can potentially harness momentum for much of the work that needs to be done by being conscious of the tipping point.

Minimize scattering resources across numerous neighborhoods.  Instead, focus efforts across all areas (infrastructure, schools, parks, transportation, neighborhood services, crime prevention) of identified at-risk neighborhoods perceived to be at or near a tipping point.

Practiced by New York City law enforcement in the mid 90's, aggressive action on smaller crimes such as vandalism and subway fare-beating is thought to have resulted in substantial drop in violent crime by concretely re-defining expectations of behavior.