Wanted

A Single Family Home with Modern Finishes, Easy Access to Public Transportation, Shopping and Good Schools: How CDCs are Creating Communities of Choice Using Education Innovation

Abstract

Philadelphia’s community development field has worked effectively during the last twenty years to stabilize neighborhoods through myriad efforts addressing quality of life, safety, housing and small business development, transforming neighborhoods of neglect and disinvestment into neighborhoods of improved opportunity and new investment. Many CDCs and community groups now are leading the way to take the local field’s accomplishments still farther by focusing their efforts on addressing education for both youth and adults with in-classroom and out-of-school learning. Their goals are ambitious: transform their target communities into neighborhoods of choice where both long-term residents feel pride and can see multigenerational investment grow and newcomers seeking that single family home with modern finishes and easy access to public transportation and good schools can find what they are looking for in establishing their own homesteads. Their pathways are diverse and forward thinking. In this brief overview we will explore outstanding examples of CDC work in education from high-quality pre- k, public and charter schools to innovative approaches to adult education serving hard to employ job training and college degree programs.