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Expanded and updated each section to reflect recent developments in Community Economic Development financing, funding, and education. Citations and bibliography updated.

Updated on 4 November 2013. The previous version of this content can be found here.
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date: 18 August 2019

Abstract and Keywords

Community economic development (CED) is an integrated and community-driven approach to development aimed at generating wealth, capabilities, and empowerment in low-income and low-wealth communities. Nonprofit organizations partner with public and for-profit interests to develop social and economic investment strategies for community economic renewal and revitalization. Social workers in CED engage in interdisciplinary work in community organizing, leadership development, program development and implementation, social-service management, and policy advocacy. To achieve large and sustainable success, CED requires solidarity with and investment in poor communities by society as a whole.

Keywords: asset building, community development, economic development, sustainable development, social capital, social development, community practice

Margaret Sherrard Sherraden

University of Missouri, St. Louis

Lisa Reyes Mason

Lisa Reyes Mason is an Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee College of Social Work. Dr. Mason’s research focuses on the intersection of social and environmental issues. Specifically, she examines how gender and resource distribution relate to vulnerability and adaptation to environmental change, in domestic and international settings. Dr. Mason earned her PhD and MSW from Washington University in St. Louis, and her BA from the University of Pennsylvania.

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