Community Development Innovation Forum
On June 11, 2008, MACDC, LISC and other community development practitioners kicked off the Community Development Innovation Forum. The Forum is a cross sector initiative to examine and challenge the core strategies and principles that underlie the community development field in order to help craft new innovations that will strengthen the field for the future. The Forum emerged out of discussions among MACDC members and partners over the previous few years and a growing recognition that the field needs to adapt and change in response to new and emerging trends. Some of the changes that CDCs and others in the field are facing involve real estate markets, community development finance, philanthropy, public policy, CDC capacity, competition from both non profits and for profit entities, new opportunities for collaboration, and an accelerating generational shift in the leadership of the field.
The Forum will identify recent and promising innovations and develop strategies for supporting these efforts. It will also help identify and implement new innovations that require multi-party collaboration that would not be possible without a collective response. The Forum has established five working groups to tackle specific issues:
- Defining the community development field and strengthening the field’s infrastructure
- Real estate finance
- Collaboration
- Community Building
- Regional Equity
Each group includes both CDC practitioners and other partners and will be producing specific products and recommendations during 2008 and 2009.
The Forum has received financial support from the Boston Foundation, they Hyams Foundation and the Massachusetts Housing Partnership Fund. For more information on the Forum, click here.