Community Power Coalesces from Across the Country:
MACDC in New Orleans

by Michelle Sedaca, Program Associate
South Africa Partners

A staff member of a NonProfit Center tenant organization, Michelle writes this monthly column on life at the center, and the unique culture of a multi-tenant center created specifically for nonprofits.

Photo:Michelle (left) meeting with Jackie Cefola, program coordinator at the NonProfit Center

Making Regional Links

Typically, community development organizations (CDCs) concentrate on improving the quality of life for residents locally; for example, establishing more affordable housing and small businesses in their neighborhood. Last month, Regional Equity ’08: The Third National Summit on Equitable Development, Social Justice, and Smart Growth -- organized by PolicyLink, an institute whose work focuses on improving social and economic equity -- showcased the collective power unleashed when CDCs gather from across the country. The entire Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC) staff participated in the summit to exchange ideas and learn from the efforts of others.

The action-packed days involved a host of plenaries and workshops on topics that spanned from yoga for activists to poverty to media, among many others. The summit addressed the cross-intersection of community development issues, including transportation, housing and health care. Examining innovative responses to these complex issues is especially urgent today as the nation faces a housing crisis exacerbated by skyrocketing foreclosure rates.

“You can’t have one policy without thinking about the other,” explained Don Bianci, senior policy advocate at MACDC. For example, appropriate development strategies consider the location’s proximity to infrastructure, its impact on the environment, and preserve open space, Bianci described. By exploring the connections between these issues, regional equity “adds onto the idea of community control and considers the impact on a region. … If we can make those links, it’s powerful,” he noted.

Lessons Learned from Louisiana

The summit’s choice of New Orleans for this year’s location is significant for many reasons. Hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, redevelopment efforts are intimately intertwined with discussions at the conference. MACDC staff experienced firsthand the impact of Hurricane Katrina in the Lower Ninth Ward, a predominantly African-American enclave, as well as other neighborhoods where mostly Caucasians reside. The gross discrepancy between which neighborhoods have been rebuilt (the white areas) and which are populated by vacant lot after lot (the areas of color) was striking. “You have to remind yourself that this was once a dense urban area,” Bianci commented.

The tours in which MACDC staff participated differed from the “devastation tours” in which people surveyed the damage by the storm. “Instead, the focus was on rebuilding through the lense of community development,” shared Shirronda Almeida, . “[We asked], how can we learn from this tragic experience?” added Allison Staton, MACDC director of advocacy.

Another notable experience was the screening of Trouble the Water, a documentary about an African-American couple from New Orleans vividly depicting the impact of Katrina. The film raised the “inconvenient truth about race,” said Staton. Almeida hopes to share this deeply moving documentary with Boston audiences in the near future.

Bringing Community Development Issues Home

On March 27, MACDC staff and its member organizations descended on the State House for its annual Lobby Day to urge legislators to prioritize key issues like affordable housing and small business development which affect communities across Mass. Undoubtedly, the experience at the New Orleans summit channeled renewed energy on Beacon Hill and onwards as MACDC continues its important work in promoting positive community development in neighborhoods throughout the state. “That’s when it gets exciting – thinking about creative ways to collaborate with the people who attended [the summit] and how to harness the energy,” Almeida said.

If you are interested in becoming active in a CDC in your neighborhood, please visit www.macdc.org for more information.

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