Urban Green Initiative: A Kick Off to a New Direction for CDCRC

Who:

The Community Development Corporation Resource Consortium (CDCRC) has helped more than 500 families with keeping their homes, getting a new car, repairing their credit, or starting a new business during the past 12 years with limited financial support. The leadership of CDCRC knows that if they are going to meet the growing needs of the community, it must embark on a bold, new way to sustain its operations while continuing to enhance and expand its services to the community.

What:

The Urban Green Initiative (UGI) is a bold, new direction for the CDCRC to ensure that it is a model of energy efficiency and a community-based vehicle providing collaborative opportunities that will leverage community resources, create platforms for economic change, increase capacity for non-profit organizations and strengthen micro-enterprise development opportunities in under-served areas.

The CDCRC wants the community to know the critical role it has played and will continue to play in shaping the agency’s future and the services that it provides. The CDCRC embarked on UGI, a three-phase development program, to revitalize its infrastructure, develop community-centered transitional training and job-producing enterprises, and create a community gathering space where community residents and businesses can come together to collaborate for wealth formation through homeownership and small business growth in ways that are more energy efficient, thereby directly benefiting its clients, tenants, customers and neighbors.

When:

The UGI will kick off on October 27, 2012 with a Forever Green Harvest Celebration to celebrate CDCRC’s successes within the community, as well as kick off the CDCRC’s Urban Green Initiative (UGI), which impacts the local environment and economy by creating jobs and accelerating new business creation and growth and by educating Montgomery County residents about the importance of adopting green energy as a goal for their home and community.

Where:

The UGI kick off will be held at 323 Salem Avenue. The Harvest Celebration will provide residents and the community at-large with an opportunity to show their support for the CDCRC, learn more about CDCRC services, and how they can assist the CDCRC in achieving the goals outlined in the UGI. There will be activities and fun for the entire family. Attendees will also receive free information about other community resources, nutritional tips, as well as information about eco-friendly products, services and programs.

How:

The Forever Green Harvest Celebration is also a kick off to UGI’s fundraising program, “Go 4 Green” Campaign.

This campaign is an expanded effort and a new way of raising funds for the CDCRC Inc. and the CDCRC is asking the very community in which it serves to help in this cause.

The financial resources generated from the CDCRC’s fundraising program, “Go 4 Green” Campaign, will help support CDCRC operations, as well as convert the CDCRC’s building at 323 Salem Avenue into a green space with a state-of-the-art energy and efficiency infrastructure allowing the organization to expand and enhance existing programs, create a Community Computer and Media Resources Center, and re-establish a recognized community gathering place that will include a healthy eatery for residents.

Why:

For the past 12 years, the CDCRC has achieved a lot of success but has had limited financial resources to manage its operations and finance the various programs and activities that have allowed it to meet the needs of its clients.

Organizers say this is the first time in the 12-year history of the organization that it has publicly celebrated its accomplishments and the first intentional step toward asking the community to share ownership in what it is trying to accomplish in the community.

The UGI’s fundraising program, “Go 4 Green” Campaign, will help provide long-term financial sustainability for the organization, create jobs and new business opportunities for residents, as well as support food service education and training programs that create important linkages with local community gardening and other environment-friendly initiatives and programs.