CED Grantee Spotlight Archive

Neighborhood Businesses Aren't Always Small Businesses

Northwest Side CDC in Milwaukee has programs to assist neighborhood businesses. It has developed revolving loan funds, provides technical help to businesses and entrepreneurs, and helps to develop commercial and mixed-use properties to benefit its community.However, its partnership with DRS Technologies led to a unique relationship with four major benefits for each stakeholder. Read the full case study.

Building Jobs in Building Maintenance

With many programs involving many hundreds of families, New Economics for Women (NEW) looked for opportunities to create jobs. It realized that its own properties might create just such an opportunity. In about 2008, it sought to form a for-profit subsidiary to undertake the management of some of its properties and to sell services to other property owners. In 2009, it received a Community Economic Development grant in the amount of $329,553 to help create Socos, a property management firm to employ area low-income residents. Read the full case study.

Providing Transportation Services and Jobs

The Little Dixie Community Action Agency , which serves low-income households in three counties in southeastern Oklahoma, decided that people in its rural service area deserved better access to good services. Rather than trying to build them locally, it decided to provide a transit service to take its residents to quality services and stores in nearby areas that already had them. Read the full case study.

Making an Asset out of A White Elephant

In 1977, the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC) considered the old brewery as having the potential to be a new job center. JPNDC began planning to turn the site into a small business center that would house at least 250 jobs and be a supportive environment for small businesses, especially those owned by women and minorities. After JPNDC bought the Haffenreffer brewery, it took another $25 million transform the old brewery, of which JPNDC received five CED grants. Read the full case study.

Trying to Build a Business in the Clean Energy Field

Isles, Inc . was founded in 1981 to improve living conditions in the lower-income areas of central New Jersey. From its headquarters in Trenton, the state capital, the Isles motto was “create self-reliant families in healthy, sustainable communities.” Mirroring this organizational theme are the programs that Isles has developed. Each balances service to families with an eye to improving the environment and communities. Read the full case study.

Cafes and Restaurants Can Be Community Meeting Points

In Park Hills, Missouri, the local restaurant closed due to a foreclosure. East Missouri Action Agency (EMAA) surmised that reviving the restaurant could provide a sit-down place to eat, create jobs, and spur further community revitalization. In the words of EMAA Community Services Director Keri McCrorey: "As a community action agency, we try to be innovative and look for new ways to lift people out of poverty." Read the full case study.

Building a Sustainable Economy

Coastal Enterprises Inc. (CEI) serves a large swath of rural Maine from its headquarters in the coastal town of Wiscasset. CEI and its leadership have long believed in building an economy that would use the state’s resources to create jobs and services without unduly stressing the area’s natural beauty. Thus, CEI has supported small fishermen and fishing facilities, value-added lumber industries, agriculture, and similar industry sectors. Read the full case study.

Helping to Create Businesses and Jobs on a Reservation

Native Americans living on reservations across American face challenges in establishing viable businesses, creating jobs, obtaining reliable services, and accessing fresh foods. These conditions are intertwined. Efforts to improve this situation need an approach that addresses more than just one facet, and the Lakota Funds community development financial institution did just that; it was awarded a CED grant to develop new businesses, expand existing ones, and improve individuals’ job skills. Read the full case study.

Enlivening the Main Street

Avenida Guadalupe Association (AGA) was founded in 1979 to bring better services to the historic Hispanic West San Antonio neighborhood. It focused on developing Guadalupe Street, the informal “main street” of the community. Building from efforts begun in 2007 through a planning grant from the City of San Antonio to determine what could be included in a new neighborhood commercial revitalization project along Guadalupe Street, AGA received a 2008 CED grant to renovate two older commercial buildings for retail and office use and seed a new property management business. Read the full case study.

Celebrating Local Culture and Creating Job Opportunities at the Same Time

The Pacific Gateway Center (PGC) is a Honolulu, Hawaii-based nonprofit organization formed to help serve the needs of Vietnamese and other refugees. Learn how, with the help of a CED grant, PGC renovated a 125 year old historic building near Honolulu's Chinatown for a variety of food-oriented and handicraft uses. Read the full case study.

CED Funds Help Entrepreneurs Scale Up Food Enterprises in Philadelphia and Detroit

CED Program Showcase: Enterprise and Eastern Market, shows how CED funds supported independent food enterprises and get healthy food in the hands of people who need it. The Culinary Center, built with a CED grant to The Enterprise Center , gave Marian Dossou the facilities and support she needed to launch her business, Kakemi 90 Second Cake . A CED grant to Eastern Market Corporation , helped the organization move beyond providing fresh produce to local farmers markets to supporting a store that provides produce year round and hires young people from the community.

CED Makes a Big Impact for a Mechanic in Indiana, a Small Business Owner in Wisconsin, and an Administrative Assistant in Pennsylvania

Check out “CED Program Showcase: Englewood, WWBIC, and Westmoreland,” a video highlighting how three CED grantees—Englewood Community Development Corporation , Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation , and Westmoreland Community Action —are making a big impact for members of their communities.

Northwest Side CDC a Finalist for Milwaukee Awards for Neighborhood Development Innovation!

Congratulations to CED grantee Northwest Side Community Development Corporation (NWSCDC) for being selected as a finalist for the Chase Economic Development Award, as part of the 2018 Milwaukee Awards for Neighborhood Development Innovation (MANDIs ). This video highlights NWSCDC’s success with job creation through business lending. The projects shown were launched with CED funds and provided job opportunities for individuals with low income. At the end of 2017, NWSCDC had created 1,000 new jobs through CED funded projects since 2000.

Main Street Launch Spurs New Businesses in Oakland, California!

With its 2017 CED grant, Main Street Launch provided low-interest loans to four emerging businesses in downtown Oakland, California. For more information on these businesses and how they are helping spur job creation in Oakland, visit these links:

• Lena's Soul Food Café
• Spice Monkey & Howden Market
• Calavera
• The Hair Gym Academy & Salon