Community Building: Hope and Caution

Examines shifts in community development approaches & the implications for community development corporations (CDCs). The shifts include a more comprehensive approach to community development, recognizing community organizing as a means of identifying community leaders, renewed emphasis on community planning, & more inclusion of neighborhood residents in the planning & implementation of renewal efforts. Due to its activist approach & deemphasis on exclusively real-estate based development, community building has met with resistance from traditional funders & practitioners. A survey of executive directors of CDCs & residents involved with CDCs reveals that directors saw the CDC as the community, while residents viewed the community & CDC separately. It is concluded that organizing must be reemphasized through increased training & recruitment, & directors should be exposed to new models & techniques of community building. 2 Photographs. M. Greenberg