Community development course celebrates 10 years

3:47 p.m., Feb. 2, 2004--The University of Delaware Community Development Certificate Course will celebrate the 10th class to graduate with new knowledge and skills in community-based economic development at 3 p.m., Friday, Feb. 6, at Neighborhood House in Wilmington.

The community development course, a service of UD’s Center for Community Research and Service, provides professional development training and organization, management and leadership building skills to leaders within a community.

The new graduates join more than 200 other neighborhood and community leaders, nonprofit executives, bankers, government agency representatives, faith-based community leaders and community organizers who have learned how to improve local economies and community-based organizations in Delaware and the region.

The graduation ceremony keynote speaker is the Rev. Luis A. Cortes Jr., a Baptist minister and founder and president of Nueva Esperanza Inc., the largest Hispanic faith-based community development corporation in the country. Through his leadership, Nueva Esperanza, or New Hope, has developed 340,000 square feet of commercial real estate and 150 housing units, created a charter high school and junior college, and assisted more than 600 individuals to become homeowners in Philadelphia.

Cortes is also leading an effort to provide technical assistance to 138 new Latino community and faith-based agencies and congregations throughout the country under a grant funded by the federal Compassion Care Fund.

Also featured will be Sandra Jibrell, director of civic investment for the Annie E. Casey Foundation of Baltimore, a long-time sponsor of the certificate program and efforts nationwide to rebuild distressed communities.

Community development corporations serve as bridges of hope and opportunity for the disadvantaged in their communities by providing living wage employment, affordable housing, health care and resources to build and strengthen neighborhood-owned businesses by producing housing, preparing first-time home buyers for mortgages, building social capital, managing revolving loan funds and turning brownfields into clean and green commercial areas.

The graduation ceremony is open to the public.

For more information, contact the Center for Community Research and Service at 831-6780 or by e-mail [cross@udel.edu].

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