A Promise Neighborhood is both a place and a strategy. Many Promise Neighborhoods have experienced economic distress and its consequences, often facing inadequate access to high quality early learning opportunities, struggling schools, low high school and college graduation rates, high rates of unemployment, high rates of crime, and indicators of poor health.

A Promise Neighborhood is also a strategy for addressing the issues faced by communities in distress. Strong lead organizations and partners work to ensure that over time all children in a Promise Neighborhood have access to a continuum of solutions, or pipeline, that support them from cradle to career. By "braiding" federal and other resources, communities can create opportunity and achieve better results for all. Promise Neighborhoods build pipelines of programs, service and supports so that children and youth in distressed communities can succeed in school and beyond. This is one piece of a multi-agency strategy to address struggling schools, high unemployment, poor housing, persistent crime, and other problems in high-poverty neighborhoods.

The Promise Neighborhoods program is designed around a Results Framework with ten results that each community aims to achieve, from children being ready for kindergarten to families and community members supporting learning in Promise Neighborhoods schools. Progress in achieving these ten results is measured using the associated indicators. Promise Neighborhoods also recognizes that each community is unique and provides flexibility for how the results will be achieved.