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Community Development Field
Shelterforce considers “community development” to be an extremely broad term. But there are still many conversations about the ways in which that broad work happens. Comprehensively or in coalitions of specialized organizations? Locally or regionally? Place or people? While the answers to all of these are usually “both,” there are many conversations to be had about “how.”
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Federal Grant Rule Change Threatens Community Access to Public Funds
A proposed rule from the Office of Management and Budget would facilitate political interference in federal grant disbursements across all agencies. The deadline for public comment is July 13.
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Building Community Note by Note
As I listened to a fine bluegrass band play in Courthouse Square in Virginia the other night, I was thinking about how important music is to our community. We may […]
CAPACD 2013: ‘Lei’-ing the Groundwork of Future Reform
Aloha! No, I did not just return from a tropical Hawaiian vacation. Rather, the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (CAPACD) conference, where each speaker received a lei, […]
Finding Allies in the Sequester
There are two good things to say about the sequester, the federal government’s obligation to cut 8 percent from the budgets of all federal programs. First, the cuts and the […]
Defining Language
Comprehensive. Scale. Development. Capacity. Impact. These words (and many others) took on new definitions when I began working at Shelterforce just two months ago. Understanding the jargon of community development, […]
The ‘Art’ of Public Planning
Café tables? Yes. Mimes? Sure. Palm trees? Oooh yeah. I checked off boxes next to the features I like in outdoor public places at a recent community meeting for northern […]
NoMi? NoBe? No Go
A few years ago, we had a movement of people who tried to rebrand our Twin Cities community as “NoMi”—a shortened take on North Minneapolis, where I live and work. […]
Community Development: It’s What’s For Dinner
Last week we heard from Alan Mallach and Mindy Thompson Fullilove on different aspects of stable neighborhoods. Mallach, in his post, looks at some of the principles of what it […]
The Tenacity of Dysfunction
The word resilience has different meanings in different fields. In the field of material science, it refers to the ability of a material to regain its shape after it has […]
Done Right, Eliminating Food Deserts Result in Community Oases
While eliminating food deserts often involves resources from outside of the community, a neighborhood must maintain control of its assets and identity.
The Renter’s Dilemma
“The old formula of buying and dying in your house is no longer the formula for many…The stigma of renting is no longer the case. When it comes to living […]
Scale-up? Not So Fast
I think about Dunbar’s number when I hear people talk about community development needing to “scale-up.” In the early 1990s, British anthropologist Robin Dunbar made a series of observations and […]
Rural Housing Budget Disappointing, But Not Surprising
Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, the Obama administration’s rural housing budget continues trends that were evident in the last several budget requests. The guiding principle seems to be, as it is […]