Welcome to the Florida Alliance of Community Development Corporations Website!

The Florida Alliance of Community Development Corporations (FLACDC) is a statewide membership organization of community-based development corporations (CDCs) and their partners.  Together, we work to help communities across Florida develop their existing assets and attract new ones.  As we succeed, the people who live there have greater opportunities to increase their own wealth and contribute to the well-being of the entire community. The purpose of our organization and those of our members is economic progress - focusing public and private investment on improving the places where people live, work and visit.  New and expanded businesses, better places to live, safer and more appealing streets and buildings, convenient transportation and access to jobs, schools and recreational sites - these are some of the tangible results of successful community development - goals of all Floridians.

Every communtiy, rich and poor, has unmet opportunity.  Investments in older or disadvantaged neighborhoods may offer smaller or slower financial return, which may make them less attractive to private developers.  Florida's CDCs specialize in putting opportunities in these areas to work by fostering broad public participation, engaging commuity members in planning and decision making on their own terms and in their shared interests.  Community Development benefits the area as a whole - not just the immediate neighborhood.  When a neglected or abandoned home on a block is fixed up, all the other properties on the block gain in value.  As individual neighborhoods improve, they become atractive to new residents, new visitors, new businesses that create new jobs, and to new and stonger relationships with surrounding areas.  The result is an increase in regional as well as local prosperity and an increase in the region's economic competitiveness.

Community Development is driven by opportunity.  How we work together to take advantage of the opportunities in our communities to increase assets and property value, find capital to build and improve those places and create on-going economic activity sets CDCs apart from their private development counterparts.  CDCs recognize that successful Community Development is, by definition, Place-Based - it has to occur in the area where the opportunities are.  Second, it must be Community-Driven - the residents, business owners, investors and others must participate in and contribute to the process.  Third, the process itself needs to be Comprehensive - it must take into account all aspects of the community - homes, businesses, schools, churches, colleges and universities and others - in order to be successful.  And finally, Community Development is Long-Term - everyone involved must recognize that it takes time to find the best opportunities and marshal the resources required to invest in them to obtain the desired results - a place where children get good educations, residents are safe, employment is plentiful and no one is left behind.