Community Economic Development Thesis Projects
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The mission of the Community Economic Development program is to build better practices and policies that serve low-income and marginalized communities around the globe. Community economic development gives people control over their economic futures by developing leadership in the poorest communities and eliminating the apathy that can result from generations of poverty and neglect.
Much of the work in these collections involve first-hand data collection, providing new empirical evidence and unique findings in the field. This research is conducted all over the world, including the United States, Mexico, Uganda, and Tanzania.
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Browsing Community Economic Development Thesis Projects by Author "Aricanli, Tosun"
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Item Acre Plan outreach and education project(Southern New Hampshire University, 2003) Harden, John; Aricanli, TosunLowell, MA is currently implementing an urban renewal project in the Acre neighborhood of the city. Commonly known as the Acre Plan, this 20-year project was created with input from residents and others in the city, as required by the terms of the Urban Renewal laws that also give the City broad power to implement change, including the power of eminent domain. This residential input will continue. Due to the transient nature of the Acre community, there is a constant risk of losing continuous representation as well as having representation that is undereducated about the intentions and problems of the Plan. The purpose of this project is to create a structure to continually educate groups of residents, and enable them to meaningfully negotiate with city officials during the full implementation period of the Plan. Since the beginning of this project, a group of residents has met regularly, familiarized themselves with the Plan, received training in areas they felt were necessary, and engaged in successful negotiation with city officials on issues important to area residents. (Author abstract)Item Fort Belknap Small Business Development Center : Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, Harlem, Montana(Southern New Hampshire University, 1998) Brown, Caroline; Aricanli, TosunFort Belknap Indian Reservation, established in May 1888 is the homeland of the Gros Ventre and the Assiniboine Tribes. Fort Belknap is one of seven Indian reservations in Montana. It is located in north central Montana, 40 miles from the Canadian order and four miles southeast of Harlem, Montana. It covers an area of approximately 30 miles wide and 45 miles long. approximately 3800 enrolled members live on or near the reservation. The Fort Belknap Community Council is the official governing body of the Fort Belknap Indian Community. Fort Belknap Indian Reservation consists of three communities. Fort Belknap Agency, located four miles southeast of Harlem, Montana, on U.S. Highway 2, is the site of the Tribal headquarters, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Health Services and Fort Belknap College, and has a population of approximately 2000 residents. Most people employed on Fort Belknap travel from other areas of the reservation to work at one of the mentioned service centers. A beautiful Senior Center, built in 1995, provides meals and a friendly meeting place for the seniors. Hays, located at the south end of the reservation, thirty-five miles from Fort Belknap Agency, is at the foothills of the beautiful Little Rocky Mountains, has a population of approximately 1300. Hays originated with the establishment of a Catholic mission, known as Saint Paul's Mission, in the late 1800's, when the Jesuit priests and the Ursaline nuns began a boarding school for the native American children. Today, Saint Paul's Mission is no longer a boarding school, however, it continues to serve the community of Hays, educating the youth, in grades K-6 and provides employment for approximately fifteen community members in positions of teacher aids, staff, bus drivers and maintenance. Hays has a public school for grades 7-12. This is a fairly new school, built in the early 1980's. This school employees approximately forty community members in positions of administrators, faculty, staffs maintenance and bus drivers. A beautiful Senior Center was built by Fort Belknap Housing in the 1980's as part of an elderly complex. The community of Lodge Pole, also located at the foothills of the Little Rocky Mountains, is twelve miles East of Hays. Lodge Pole has an estimated population of 500 people. It has a public school, K-6 and employees approximately fifteen community members in positions of Administrators, faculty, staff, bus, drivers and maintenance. Both Hays and Lodge Pole have Senior Centers and Community Centers, which provide phone and fax access to services offered at Fort Belknap Agency's central offices. These Centers are staffed by the Fort Belknap Community Council with clerical, cooks and maintenance. The economy of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation largely consists of transfer payments from the Tribal government, Indian health Service (IHS), Bureau of Indian Affairs, (BIA), Fort Belknap College, Aid To Families with Dependent Children, and General Assistance. Additional sources of income contributing to the economy include firefighting, dry land farming and ranching. Ninety-three percent of this inflow of income to these agencies on the reservation flows off the reservation and is spent in bordering communities along U.S. Highway 2, Harlem, five miles northwest, Chinook, twenty-five miles west, Havre, fifty miles west and Malta, thirty miles east Fort Belknap Indian Reservation lacks the basic economic needs for most families, the 3800 residents must travel from one-hundred miles to one-hundred and eighty miles, round trip, to fill their basic economic needs, for purchasing clothing, household items, appliances, auto sales and repairs, hardware, lumber and normal bank transactions. Other components of Fort Belknap's economic mix include natural resources, construction, and small businesses. Each community has two convenience type grocery stores, which sell gasoline and deli items. Fort Belknap Agency also has a Trading Post and a newly opened grocery store. Small entrepreneurial ventures are developing a long overlooked aspect of economic development on the reservation, the individual with home based businesses. These ventures include art-work, quilt-making, land-scaping services, logging and other services consistent with the cultural and environmental needs of the tribal community. (Author abstract)Item Gateway Plaza : a retail center development, Chattanooga, Tennessee(Southern New Hampshire University, 2000) Smith, Joyce A.; Aricanli, TosunGateway Center: A Retail Development describes the process used in the creation of a commercial center in the M . L. King District. The objective is to stimulate neighborhood revitalization and address concerns from residents voiced during a visioning process regarding the lack of commercial services. Residents from the target and adjacent communities responded to survey questions about goods and services they would like to have accessible in the neighborhood. After tabulating and reviewing the results, a feasibility analysis was completed to identify the target market, calculate purchasing power, identify potential retail tenants, and determine costs for construction and operation of a retail center. The challenge is to create a "virtuous cycle of retail" in the District that offers goods and services, promotes business growth, provides employment, and attract new investment by the private sector. (Author abstract)Item Grenada's Save the Children Organization : playground build project(Southern New Hampshire University, 2003) Pearson, Lisa; Aricanli, TosunGrenada's Save the Children Organization, GRENSAVE, is committed to securing the best interests of children as preserved during the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. GRENSAVE continues to work to improve the education provided at their preschools and daycares with the limited human and financial resources at its disposal. GRENSAVE's PLAYGROUND BUILD PROJECT is designed to provide the students with a parent/ teacher-built playground system. This project is designed to increase the students' thinking and social, verbal and physical skills as well as encourage their creativity. The parents, teachers, and staff at GRENSAVE have been working to design an appropriate playground system and raise the funds to buy materials and tools in order to complete the projected target build day scheduled for August 2003. (Author abstract)Item Homeownership continuum(Southern New Hampshire University, 2004) DeFranza, Andrew; Aricanli, TosunBeverly Massachusetts is a small City with wide income disparity and prohibitive housing costs. The dramatic rise in housing prices over the last 5-10 years has made it impossible for low-income people to purchase homes. The Homeownership Continuum is an attempt at melding new and existing resources to leverage homeownership opportunities for low -income people. The HC provides low-income families with a viable path toward homeownership by addressing each barrier to ownership with pertinent resources. Financial limitations are addressed by the establishment of the Section 8 Mortgage program, the creation of an IDA savings program and the application of existing down payment programs. Limited understanding about credit, basic finance and mortgage processes is dealt with through educational workshops and targeted marketing. The IDA program will offer monthly workshops on these topics. A certified homebuyer class will be offered by the Community Outreach Program in conjunction with a local realtor and local bankers. In addition, information regarding existing first-time buyer programs will be distributed in low-moderate income neighborhoods. Finally, the local affordable housing developers will commit to considering first-time buyer projects as part of their efforts to address the affordable housing shortage. All these fulcrum points are necessary to leverage first time buyer opportunities for low and moderate income families. (Author abstract)Item Maine micro enterprise project : conducted among Maine women micro business owners(Southern New Hampshire University, 1997) Denzer, Mary; Aricanli, TosunThe Maine Micro Enterprise Project sought to identify the contributing components to the successful operation of micro business among Maine women business owners. Part of this population of business owners are involved in the programs sponsored by the Women's Business Development Corporation, a non profit, private economic development corporation. Information that was gathered through interviews, focus groups and surveys was intended to inform and shape the products and services WBDC offers to women micro business owners. The project results would also help determine the potential demand for services and the future needs of this group. Although the research made many of the demands of the micro-entrepreneurs clear and some applications readily apparent, it is still not evident if the products and services developed from this information would stimulate and nurture micro-business success. Some services derived from this project are already being tested. Further study over the period of several years would be necessary to understand the effect on micro enterprise of various components of the micro development plan suggested by this study. Accordingly a better definition of "business success" as encountered in this project could, constitute another study for the future. (Author abstract)Item New Britain to Pittsburgh and back : a CED adventure(Southern New Hampshire University, 1998) Van Campen, Jennifer; Aricanli, TosunThe following is a review of the author's Community Economic Development (CED) experiences while working at a non-profit community organizing project in New Britain, CT, a "fellow" at a public housing authority in Pittsburgh, PA and while "between positions." Each position offered substantial exposure to the various organizational constraints limiting the success of CED. The final sections present concerns and recommendations for how each described organization could better meet and honor the spirit of CED. (Author abstract)Item Real estate development : policy & procedure controls(Southern New Hampshire University, 2003) Stanhope, Dawn; Aricanli, TosunDeveloping real estate is a complex undertaking. Many non-profit agencies that develop affordable housing find the process to be, at times, overwhelming. There are many factors to be considered and each project is different from any others that have been completed before it. Many risks are assumed by the non-profit in this business. Because there are decisions to be made by managers throughout the development process, a policy and procedure manual will assist the team in recognizing each other's roles and provide a guideline for effective risk management and minimize financial impacts to the agency, and ultimately to the residents. (Author abstract)Item Regional Economic Development Initiative - REDI : for the benefit of the towns of Auburn, Bedford, Candia, Derry, Goffstown, Hooksett, Londonderry, and Manchester(Southern New Hampshire University, 1997) Smith, G. Robert; Aricanli, TosunThe objective of the Regional Economic Development Initiative serving the communities of Auburn, Bedford, Candia, Derry, Goffstown, Hooksett, Londonderry, and Manchester is to insure employment opportunities are available for the estimated 7,000 jobs that become available in these communities annually due to restructuring, downsizing, consolidation, bankruptcies and relocation of existing business. An additional component is to organize a training center and revolving loan fund to assist micro and small business owners for start up and expansion of their businesses. This office will serve as a hub for information such as demographics for each of the eight towns and the state of N H . Availability of work force, commercial real estate accommodations, capital and credit sources availability and the appetite of the individual communities for new or expanding business will be accessible at this office or on their web site. The vision is a one stop shopping center for the region in encouraging new business to locate in the area and existing businesses to expand to provide jobs for the 7,000 people displaced annually. Inquiring businesses coming to the center will be welcomed by the staff and would be invited to review the computerized information available regarding available sites, workforce, real estate tax structure, community attitude relative to their business, competition, transportation, tax incentives, if available, financing opportunities, maps and visual aids. After the visit, interested businesses would be connected with economic development officers in the designated community of their interest. (Author abstract)Item Renascence plan old west end : Detroit / central intersection study(Southern New Hampshire University, 2002) Kovacs, Kathleen; Clamp, Christina; Aricanli, TosunThe Toledo Ohio intersection of Detroit Avenue and Central Avenue and the surrounding area are peppered with vacant lots and blighted buildings. This once vital entranceway into the residential community has become an eyesore that only promotes increasing disinvestment and criminal activity. Neighborhood residents wanted to change the perception of the area by hosting a design charrette that would develop landscape, land use and economic development project opportunities. The plan would be used as a tool to direct future investment activities. A three-day charrette inviting the people in the surrounding area was developed with the assistance of community residents and the Urban Affairs Center of the University of Toledo to bring together homeowners, renters, landlords, business owners and city officials. The first evening of the charrette was used to hear more about the issues in the community, learn what residents would like to see happen in the community and their dreams of future possibilities. On the second day, residents began work with planners, architects, and students in three vision teams to translate the information from the previous evening in drawings and detail. The culmination of the event, Sunday evening, the three vision teams presented their ideas back to the community and a sense of consensus was developed. Determining the next steps and establishing a sense of continuity will be important follow-up activities to establish with the community so they understand this is an ongoing endeavor. (Author abstract)