On June 14th, 23 participants from 14 non-profit early education and care (ECE) and out of school time (OST) organizations across Massachusetts gathered at the Mass Audubon Boston Nature Center and Wildlife Sanctuary in Mattapan for 2018’s Let’s Take It Outside: Developing Natural Play Spaces (LTIO), a one-day training offered through the Children’s Investment Fund (...

The Children’s Investment Fund (“the Fund”) offers technical assistance, training and financial support to non-profit early education and care (ECE) and out of school time (OST) programs across Massachusetts. In late May, the Fund administered the tenth Building Stronger Centers Training Institute (BSC), a comprehensive four-day program for ECE and OST providers. ...

In 2016, CEDAC was awarded $180,000 of funding by the Kuehn Charitable Foundation (KCF) to establish a new planning grant program to help the non-profit community development sector across Massachusetts. Last year, KCF committed a second grant to CEDAC in the same amount. Named for the foundation’s creator Robert H. Kuehn, Jr., the Kuehn Planning Grants help non-profit o...

Massachusetts is fortunate in that over the last several decades, the Commonwealth has repeatedly demonstrated its commitment to community development in a bipartisan way. On Thursday, May 31st, we saw the most recent example of this support when Governor Charlie Baker signed the $1.8 billion Housing Bond Bill into law. The bill will allow for new capital spending on affor...

It’s no surprise that as the weather turns warmer and sunnier, we get a chance to join our non-profit community development partners to celebrate milestone events in the project development process.  But it is always gratifying to attend groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting ceremonies and see these affordable housing, supportive housing, and child care projects go from ide...

CEDAC is pleased to welcome our new board chair and Undersecretary for Housing and Community Development, Janelle Chan, to our organization.  Undersecretary Chan began her new position in April, but in many ways, this is a coming home for her.  Prior to joining the Baker-Polito Administration in 2016, Janelle had led the Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC) as ...

While it is largely recognized that there is a strong demand for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) housing in Boston, there is also growing demand in outlying communities that offer commuter rail and active bus systems. The high cost of housing in Boston is pushing households to seek less expensive locations, but many still want the benefits of living in an urban area, in...

Massachusetts has a well-developed – and well-regarded – community development sector but not all areas in the State are as strongly developed as others.  In the Gateway Cities, the community development corporations (CDCs) work in the context of struggling economies, greater poverty, and tighter fiscal constraints than the Boston metro area. Over the last several yea...

The Commonwealth Workforce Coalition (CWC) is a statewide initiative that seeks to strengthen the capacity of Massachusetts’ education, training, and workforce system to produce better employment and earnings outcomes for unemployed and underemployed residents.  CEDAC founded the initiative, which was transferred to the Center for Social Policy (CSP) at the University o...

In February, Roger Herzog described CEDAC’s long history of supporting our non-profit partners as they produce and preserve supportive housing units through three distinct capital programs, including the Facilities Consolidation Fund (FCF). FCF was created in response to an advocate-driven effort to close institutions serving Department of Mental Health (DMH) or Departme...