The deck is sometimes stacked against hard-working people trying to get ahead, and top-down economic development strategies are often disconnected from their needs—doing little to alleviate displacement, uncertainty and persistent poverty.
By centering economic development initiatives in the aspirations, experiences, and uniqueness of communities, LISC is able to support positive economic change for residents, small business owners, and community as a whole.
Community-Centered Economic Inclusion
Community-Centered Economic Inclusion (CCEI) is a model co-developed by LISC and The Brookings Institution’s Bass Center for Transformative Placemaking. It focuses on bringing together community, city, and regional stakeholders to organize a shared economic action plan that attracts more funding, improvement initiatives and opportunities for residents than is possible with siloed development plans.
CCEI programming creates change by:
- Expanding Workforce Development linked to growing regional employment sectors.
- Assisting Small Businesses with resources and accessible support networks.
- Investing in Local Real Estate to drive community vitality and opportunity.
- Amplifying Distinctive Community Culture to fuel revitalization.
- Strengthening Civic Infrastructure networks to support inclusive engagement and investment.
What makes CCEI different:
Impact
Taking a community-centered approach to economic development has paid off. For example:
- Detroit’s CCEI process delivered nearly $600,000 in capacity-building grants to community-based organizations. It also organized a new business association, launched a business district website, and more. Read the evaluation report here.
- When COVID-19 hit, CCEI partners in three Los Angeles neighborhoods were able to quickly deliver over $5 million in grants and technical assistance to underserved small businesses, helping them expand their digital capacities, which helped retain legacy businesses. Read the evaluation report here.
Join us
You can help create coordinated and community-based economic progress.
Contact Andrea Devening, Senior Program Officer.
News & Impact
Centering Neighborhood Priorities for Economic Inclusion
By presenting early outcomes and lessons from the field, this brief from LISC and Brookings, seeks to provide guidance for cities looking to enhance opportunity in their disinvested neighborhoods and test a new kind of economic inclusion rooted in the knowledge, strength, and collective power of community.
Reimagining Economic Development in a Small American City
Major new transit investment is bringing change to Michigan City. To ensure the city’s most neglected neighborhoods share the benefits, local stakeholders, with support from LISC, are taking a whole new approach to economic development and helping create a flexible blueprint for other small American cities emerging from similar histories.
Community-Centered Economic Inclusion Playbook
This playbook, co-authored with Brookings, outlines the conditions for inclusive economic development in long-underinvested industrial corridors and business districts.