In partnership with the Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP) and Clark University, CEDAC launched a series of workshops with community development corporations (CDCs) in Worcester in order to develop a shared agenda for continued City and State investment in affordable housing projects. We recently completed the second year of these workshops, with topics derived from e...

This week, the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) offers thanks to two state officials who have been extremely important to the creation and successful implementation of the Early Education and Out of School Time (EEOST) Capital Fund: Commissioner Tom Weber and Deputy Commissioner for Administration/Chief Financial Officer Bill Concannon. Bot...

Linda Cavaioli has made a career of empowering individuals on the margins.  As Executive Director of the YWCA of Central Massachusetts for the past 26 years, she’s made it her business to support women fleeing domestic violence (DV); deliver essential early care and education to young children so that parents can work or pursue education; and empower homeless women by p...

As CEDAC celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, we are excited to also celebrate several milestone work anniversaries of our dedicated, hardworking team. Today, we hear from two CEDAC staff members: Bill Brauner, Director of Housing Preservation & Policy, and Carolyn Williams, Finance & HR Manager, as they each reflect on their 15 years contributing to CEDAC's ...

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...

Today in a special guest blog, CEDAC’s founding executive director, Carl Sussman, shares how and why CEDAC was established. Before CEDAC, Carl was a Cambridge Institute fellow in the early 1970s, and in the mid and late 1970s, he was active in crafting the state’s community development finance policies. Carl was the executive director of CEDAC for 15 years and played a...