O v e r v i e w
CED is the process by which local people build organizations and partnerships that interconnect profitable business with other interests and values - for example, skills and education, health, housing, and the environment. In CED a lot more people get involved, describing how the community should change. A lot more organizations look for ways to make their actions and investments reinforce the wishes and intentions of the whole community. Business becomes a means to accumulate wealth and to make the local way of life more creative, inclusive, and sustainable - now and 20 or 30 years from now.
At its most effective, CED is characterized by
a. a multi-functional, comprehensive strategy of on-going activities, in contrast to individual economic development projects or other isolated attempts at community betterment.
b. an integration or merging of economic and social goals to bring about more far-reaching community revitalization.
c. a base of operating principles that empower the broad range of residents for the governance of development organizations and their community as a whole.
d. a process guided by strategic planning and analysis, in contrast to opportunistic and unsystematic tactics.
e. a businesslike financial management approach that builds both ownership of assets and a diverse range of financial and other partners and supporters.
f. an organizational format that is nonprofit, independent, and non-governmental, even though for-profit or governmental entities are closely linked to its work.
This definition is adapted from the Center for Community Enterprise http://www.cedworks.com. For training on how to develop your own community economic development projects, please visit the NeighborWorks Training Institute at www.nw.org.
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