OCS DCL-2025-01 Celebrating Community Economic Development Month 2024

Office of Community Services

Dear Colleague Letter

DCL#: ACF-OCS-DCL-2025-01

DATE: October 1, 2024

TO: OCS Grant Recipients and Stakeholders

SUBJECT: Celebrating Community Economic Development Month 2024

ATTACHMENT(S): NA

Dear Colleagues,

The Office of Community Services (OCS) is celebrating Community Economic Development (CED) Month throughout October by releasing new stories emphasizing how CED is revitalizing communities and highlighting grant recipients, both old and new.

Community Economic Development Month highlights how communities come together to drive local economic development. Community-driven economic development supports entrepreneurs, expands businesses, creates jobs, and provides needed products and services. The CED program supports these efforts by funding business development with the aim of creating new, high-quality jobs with wraparound supportive services for individuals with low incomes.

To kick off this month’s celebration, we are releasing a new video, CED Then and Now. This video reflects on the origins of the CED program and the impact it has on communities across the country.

Check out CED Then and Now

Here is a preview of what you can expect during the rest of the month:

Week 2

For the second week of CED month, OCS will release a spotlight video showcasing Northwest Side CDC, a successful CED grant recipient that developed a social enterprise model to support business development and growth, while also addressing the unique community needs within Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Week 3

To celebrate the third week of CED month, OCS will be highlighting the FY24 CED and CED planning grant recipients. During this week, you can learn about the exciting work planned by the newest CED grant recipients. OCS will also release a new CED spotlight video that highlights how CED projects transform lives through job creation and community development by showcasing CED achievements by the numbers. 

Week 4

During week four of CED month, OCS will feature a spotlight video showcasing a local business that has expanded through collaboration with Community Builders of Kansas City, a CED grant recipient.

Week 5

To close out CED month, OCS will distribute three community economic development toolkits. These toolkits provide information about important topics within the field of community economic development with a focus on rural development, wraparound support services, and gentrification.

We hope you will join us in celebrating Community Economic Development Month and the incredible work CED grant recipients are doing to strengthen their local economies and communities.

Thank you for your attention to these matters. OCS looks forward to continuing to provide high-quality services to OCS partners.

/s/

Janelle George
Deputy Director
Office of Community Services