What has the Economic Development Program Funded?
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has an economic development program that focuses on Economic Development Institutions (EDIs). EDIs are typically community-based organizations and businesses. They create good jobs and just workplaces, and they develop assets for low-income people that are owned by families and communities. EDIs coincide with the CCHD mission by their commitment to the development of low-income people. All EDIs have structures that promote low-income leadership and ownership.
Five different types of Economic Development Institutions (EDIs) that have received CCHD grant support are described below. CCHDs current economic development program was launched in 2003 CCHD imagines that there will be other types of EDIs that will meet our criteria and be funded in the future.
- Real Estate Initiatives that foster both ownership and leadership opportunities for low-income people. They may be for housing, business, commercial and/or industrial uses. Legal structures, like community land trusts or limited equity cooperatives, are used to balance asset ownership and ongoing decision-making. Tenants often develop their own assets and participate in governance. The larger community benefits from a productive asset and enhanced civic participation. Typically, permanent affordability is maintained for future tenants and an organizational forum is built for a diverse group of community leaders.
- Business Incubators and Marketplaces provide a facility and ongoing support for small business development. They bring low-income entrepreneurs into a peer group relationship for the purposes of developing and operating their businesses. The member-businesses may reflect the local culture of the respective community. All businesses benefit from shared services that create efficiency in both planning and operations. Incubator businesses work together until they have reached a level of stability that allows them to leave the facility. Marketplaces rely on peer support and may also incubate businesses, but here the emphasis is on developing a growing base of customers in one shared location.
- Community Development Financial Institutions, such as community development credit unions, loan funds and community banks. Commonly known by their initials, CDFIs help low-income people, community-based organizations and businesses by providing financing for community development. These organizations also often provide technical assistance to help borrowers prepare for loans and maintain their timely repayment.
- Social Purpose and Training Businesses combine on-the-job training with the operation of a profit-making enterprise. These EDIs provide employees with good income and opportunities to develop assets. Their focus is on the development of a business that has an integral, on-the-job training component that may open up the possibility of placement in other mainstream businesses once workers have acquired certain skills. Community-based organizations that work with disadvantaged populations experiencing multiple barriers to employment may develop these businesses in order to promote participatory control and decision-making.
- Worker-Owned and Community-Owned Businesses with ownership and organizational structures that create both income and assets for low-income people. Ownership may be held by workers, a community-based organization, or in a form that combines both. Over the past ten years most of the applications received by CCHD for this EDI type have focused on paraprofessional healthcare, child care, cleaning and craft production. In recent years, an increasing number of applications has been presented for temporary employment businesses.
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Questions about grants? Email us at
cchdgrants@usccb.org