Cincinnati delegation to learn best practices from Columbus CDCs

Representatives of the City of Cincinnati, the Community Development Corporations Association of Greater Cincinnati (CDCAGC), and the Local Initatives Support Corporation of Greater Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky will be making a Road Trip to Columbus this week to learn best practices from that city’s community development corporations (CDCs).

The Friday meeting, arranged by Theresa Saelim, program manager of the Community Development Collaborative of Greater Columbus, will include a meeting with City of Columbus staff and a tour of several economic and housing projects being done by the city's CDCs.

Representatives of the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission, Price Hill Will, and Over-the-Rhine Community Housing are also planning to attend, among others.

CDCAGC executive director Patricia Garry says that what Columbus is doing is particularly intriguing.

"The Community Development Collaborative of Greater Columbus is itself of great interest," she says.  "It is a group of funders - government, foundations, maybe others - interested in supporting community developers and neighborhoods.  We'd love to explore such an idea here, and I'm eager to know more about it."

These road trips provide a keen insight to what other cities are doing, something that Garry says is somewhat unusual for CDC organizations.

"The only other city Road Trip we've done was to Indy last year," she says.  "They have a sort of similar Collaborative, a different kind of LISC program, more regional CDCs and a different relationship with the City of Indianapolis.  They also have the 'megafoundation' - Eli Lilly - which is a major CDC supporter.  At the neighborhood level, the work and the people were very recognizable.  But the support structure was quite different."

Registration for the $35 program can be made by contacting Patricia Garry.

Writer: Kevin LeMaster
Source: Patricia Garry, executive director, CDCAGC