Educate and Empower: Tools for Building Community Wealth

How do low-income communities learn to advance economically and build wealth? Low-income communities and communities of color, in challenging structural economic and social inequality, have historically grappled with tensions inherent to development. Who participates in, directs, and ultimately owns the economic-development process? In creating and sustaining new, inclusive economic institutions, how do community members cultivate and pass on skills, commitment and knowledge—especially among those who have long faced barriers to education and employment? And how should communities strike an appropriate balance between utilizing local knowledge and accessing outside expertise?

Our new report Educate and Empower, authored by Keane Bhatt and Steve Dubb, draws on case studies of 11 different community economic development initiatives from across the United States to highlight a diverse set of powerful answers to these critical questions.

Highlights from our 11 case studies:

• Cooperation Texas

• Market Creek Plaza

• Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative

• Near West Side Initiative

• PUSH Buffalo (People United for Sustainable Housing)

• Cooperative Home Care Associates

• REDF

• St. Joseph Health System of Sonoma County

• Wellspring Collaborative

• Ohio Employee Ownership Center

• New Community Corporation

See our webinar launch here, and download and read the full report here.