MANDEL SCHOOL
NEWS AND EVENTS

Prof. Mark Chupp and Doctoral candidate Diwakar Vadapalli, will present "Limitations and Lessons in Place-Based Community Development: The CDC Movement in the US" in Monterrey, Mexico at the 16th, International Consortium for Social Development Symposium.

Abstract:
Community Development Corporations (CDCs) in the US are a vital organizational mechanism for revitalization of disadvantaged communities. throughout their evolution in history, CDCs followed the dominant framrwork of "place-based community development'.

This study examines the diverse roles of CDC's in community revitalization in the Cleveland metropolitan area, their limitations in addressing challenges that result in part from larger state and federal policies in spite of their adoption of sophisticated and modern organizational mechanisms and techniques.

Recommendations include: 1) adopting a broader social development framework for building community capitals and 2) adopting a flexible unit of analysis that can be applied beyond the confines of a "place-based community'. Community-based organization in other countries, as they design their strategies for revitalization or development, can draw lessons from the experience of CDC's from a major American city.