Community Development Innovation Forum

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Community Development Innovation Forum

• Kick-Off Meeting
• June 11, 2008

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Meeting Agenda

• Desired Meeting Outcomes
• Frame the challenge facing the community
  development movement
• Share the proposed design for the Innovation
  Forum
• Recruit participants for Forum Innovation Teams

• Agenda (930 1230)
• Introduction
• Guest Speaker Jim Capraro, Greater Southwest
  Development Corporation, Chicago
• Overview of the Forum premises and design
• Innovation Team Roundtables
• Wrap Up

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Background

• Multiple meetings held during 2007 to explore
  themes
• Innovation Forum idea formalized in early 2008
• Funding secured from the Boston Foundation, Hyams
  Foundation and Mass Housing Partnership
• Facilitator hired
• Interviews conducted to define key challenges and
  opportunities
• Two planning meetings held March April, 2008

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Community Development Innovation Forum Goals
Goals Be a forum for innovative thinking on
the future of the community development field in
Massachusetts. Generate practical ideas and
strategies that the field can implement to
increase its effectiveness and be more responsive
to changing community conditions.

• Outcomes
• Articulate the community development challenge in
  todays market environment
• Identify the key opportunities for innovation in
  the field
• Organize projects that develop new practices,
  products, capabilities and systems to address
  todays social justice and community development
  challenges

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Challenges in the Community Development Field
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The Current Market Environment

• CDCs are in a maturing market and are
  experiencing a common set of pressures that all
  enterprises (public and private) experience in
  these circumstances.
• The good old days (assuming they were that
  good!) are not going to return.
• The future shape of the field of community
  development is still fuzzy. There is no obvious
  one path forward.
• The diversity of players in the CD field is
  likely to increase, not decrease.
• The Community Development field is no longer
  synonymous with CDCs.
• There are many risks, but also many good
  opportunities for innovation and experimentation.

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An Appropriate Time for Reinvention

• Every system goes through a natural evolution
  of stages whether an organization, a natural
  system, or a field of practice. The typical
  stages include
• Emergence
• Growth
• Maturation (equilibrium)
• Disequilibrium
• Either disintegrating or re-invention and
  re-emergence
• The work that is required at each stage of a
  systems evolution is slightly different.

Invent
Grow
Improve
Reinvent
Stabilize
CDC movement is here
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Challenges Mentioned in Interviews Materials

• Internal
• Increased complexity of operations and deals
• Aging of leadership and succession issues
• Mismatch between rhetoric and reality (community
  builders who are really housing developers)
• Need for world class organizational
  competencies
• Broadening of product line
• Collaboration with regional players
• Reinventing while keeping the doors open

• External
• Growth of regional economic markets
• Shifting demographics
• Shifting real estate markets
• Revolution in information systems and technology
• Growing competition for resources
• Fragmentation of the CDC field

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Summarizing the Shift
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Relevant Quotes From the Task Force
We ought to define and ally ourselves as
organizations that support working and struggling
families helping them get homes and assets that
give them options (including the option to leave
our neighborhood). Neighborhood-based
organizations are one way, but not always the
best or only way to serve this constituency.
(Task Force Notes)
Our goals are more than serving a constituency
defined as people who are struggling to get by.
We want healthy, vibrant, integrated communities.
This vision is a common denominator among CDCs
and other community-based/community development
organizations. (Task Force Notes)
CDCs arent blessed organizations. They
shouldnt be seen as entitled to projects and
resources by virtue of their neighborhood base.
CDCs arent inherently more legitimate than CAP
agencies, health centers and other neighborhood
based organizations, nor are they inherently
better housing developers than other nonprofit
developers. (Task Force Notes)
The distinctions between CDCs and other types of
community economic development organizations are
false. The CDC field doesnt exist, said one
participant. (Task Force Notes)
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Core MACDC Values

• Building Community Power
• Promoting Economic Justice
• Challenging Racism
• Encouraging Entrepreneurship
• Achieving Transformation

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The CDC Product Line

• Affordable housing development
• Commercial real estate revitalization
• Business development
• Retention attraction
• Support to existing businesses
• Creation of new businesses
• Community development finance
• Education and workforce development
• Individual asset development
• Community planning
• Community organizing social mobilization

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The CDC Model Has Inherent Tensions
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Two Kinds of (Related) Work
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Community Development Innovation Forum Structure
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Community Development Innovation Forum
Steering Committee
Stakeholder Group
Innovation Team Real Estate Finance System Reform

• Innovation Projects
• Community Analysis Tools Workshop
• Regional Equity Strategy

Innovation Team Comprehensive Community Building
Innovation Team Collaboration Strategies
Innovation Team Field Definition and Chapter 40F
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Forum Process

• Summer Innovation Teams meet and develop
  initial recommendations.
• September 29 report out to Stakeholder Group
• November 15 MACDC Convention
• 2009 Follow-on implementation activities

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Five Innovation Opportunities

• Reforming the Community Development Real Estate
  Finance System
• Developing capacity for Comprehensive Community
  Building
• Advancing the use of collaborative structures in
  the community development field
• Defining the field and reauthorizing Chapter 40F
• Supporting practical projects
• Regional equity strategy
• Community analysis tools workshop

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Housing Finance System Reform
Champions Joe Flatley (MHIC) Jeanne Pinado
(Madison Park CDC)
Purpose To recommend restructuring of the
Massachusetts system for financing community
development real estate projects in ways that
improve the capacity of the system to contribute
to affordable, integrated and sustainable
communities.

• Assumptions
• The current system is incredibly complicated,
  fragmented and inefficient.
• Imposes high costs on community developers.
• Many opportunities for improvement.
• Redesign will require collaboration across
  multiple systems.

• Deliverables
• Analysis of the current system (structure,
  strengths, weaknesses).
• Analysis of impact on financial strength of CD
  organizations.
• Recommendations for change
• Redefinition of purpose
• Restructuring of products
• Changes in requirements
• Process improvements
• Recommended implementation strategy

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Comprehensive Community Building
Champions Bill Traynor (Lawrence Community
Works) Chrystal Kornegay (Urban Edge)
Purpose To identify innovations in community
building strategies that can support the work of
Massachusetts community development organizations.

• Assumptions
• Opportunity for CD organizations to play a
  broader intermediary role in communities.
• Can involve traditional organizing network
  development problem solving comprehensive
  community planning.
• Needs to take account of new mobility patterns
  and forms of community affiliation.
• Requires new skill sets and organizational
  competencies.

• Deliverables
• Define alternative approaches and strategies
• Define alternative business models
• Identify the potential role of non place-based
  development groups
• Make recommendations on how to build this
  capacity within the CDC movement

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Collaboration Strategies
Champion Carl Koechlin (Fenway CDC)
Purpose To identify ways to support the use of
collaborative structures in the community
development field to increase efficiency and
level of impact.

• Assumptions
• There are many areas where collaboration can
  increase effectiveness.
• Can be both between CDCs and between CDCs and
  other players.
• Many examples already exist.
• Not appropriate for all areas of work.
• Can be particularly useful for increasing scale
  and reach.

• Deliverables
• Document existing examples of collaboration.
• Develop a set of best practice guidelines.
• Identify opportunities to further suppor this
  practice within the field.

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Field Definition and Chapter 40F
Champion Joe Kreisberg (MACDC)
Purpose To define the community development
field and recommend new language for the Chapter
40F legislative definition of a community
development corporation.

• Assumptions
• The community development field is rapidly
  changing and diversifying.
• There are many different kinds of organizations
  that are now engaged in community development
  work.
• The sun-setting of Chapter 40F, is an opportunity
  to reframe the community development field
  definition.

• Deliverables
• Background paper on the community development
  field and how it is changing.
• Recommendations for reauthorization of Chapter
  40F.

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Project Regional Equity Strategy
Champion Mossik Hacobian (Urban Edge)
Purpose To identify ways that MA community
development organizations can collaborate to
impact social equity at a regional scale through
collaboration with the MAPC MetroFuture planning
process.

• Assumptions
• Regional patterns of development continue to
  concentrate poverty in communities of color and
  contribute to intensified segregation.
• CD organizations are not now well positioned to
  have an impact on social equity issues at a
  regional scale.
• A partnership between the Metropolitan Area
  Planning Council and CD organizations could align
  their strategies to makes progress towards
  regional equity goals.

• Deliverables
• An analysis of the MAPC MetroFuture plan from a
  region equity perspective.
• Identification of opportunities for impact on
  social equity at a regional scale.
• Recommendations on whether and how to structure a
  partnership between MAPC and the community
  development field on regional equity strategies.

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Project Community Analysis Tools Workshop
Purpose To understand the available framework
and tools for understanding community types and
customizing strategies to the different kinds of
communities that CDCs work with.

• Assumptions
• There is a limited typology of communities in
  Massachusetts.
• Each type of community has a distinct set of
  dynamics each set of dynamics requires a
  different kind of community development strategy.
• There are a number of new tools for analysis of
  community development opportunities.
• These tools could provide a useful strategy
  framework for the CDC community.

• Deliverables
• Host a one-day workshop with presentations from
  the leading tool providers for community
  analysis. Examples include
• Dynamic Neighborhood Taxonomy (RW Ventures and
  Living Cities)
• Policy MAP (The Reinvestment Fund)
• MetroFuture Typology (Massachusetts Area Planning
  Council)
• Neighborhood Change Model (Allan Mallach)
• Identify CDCs interested in using these
  analytical tools to customize their strategies.

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Innovation Team Breakouts
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Process (45 minutes)

• Pick the team you are most interested in
  participating in and go to that table.
• Review the purpose assumptions and deliverables
  and answer any questions.
• Identify other potential participants.
• Establish a first meeting date, time and location.