East Chadsey-Condon Empowerment Alliance
Detroit’s East Chadsey-Condon Empowerment Alliance (ECCEA) will ameliorate racial wealth inequities through bold investments in housing, counseling, entrepreneurship, community engagement, and economic self-sufficiency strategies.
About
Detroit’s East Chadsey-Condon Empowerment Alliance (ECCEA) is addressing historic structural and social determinants of wealth inequities that exist for minority residents of urban communities across the United States. As proponents of structural and unequal ownership opportunity explanations, ECCEA points to discriminatory practices and racialized policies in labor markets, housing markets, and credit markets as key sources of racial wealth disparities. ECCEA will transform a 60-block community over ten years, reversing its currently projected economic decline. The model, ECCEA Roadmap to Neighborhood Stabilization, Equity and Inclusion, will involve strategic investments to promote homeownership, wrap-around small business and workforce development, mental health and financial counseling, and community engagement – galvanized by an alliance of private and public sector partners. ECCEA’s replicable solution to urban neighborhood disinvestment aims to stabilize real estate, add jobs, increase residential density, and enhance community infrastructure – thus, perpetuating intergenerational wealth and transforming the neighborhood economy from “within.”
Partners
The ECCEA team consists of over 23 community partners, nonprofits, private and public (municipal), and philanthropic supporters with over 100 years (combined) of experience. Southwest Economic Solutions (SWES) and Southwest Housing Solutions (SWHS) serve as the lead agencies of ECCEA. SWES is a leader in workforce development, financial literacy coaching, and adult education – serving over 3000 consumers each year. SWHS, alone, has leveraged over $200 million in real estate investments, renovating or building more than 750 units of affordable multi-family units, 700 single family units and 100,000 square feet of commercial space.
Southwest Counseling Solutions (SWCS), a CARF and Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic, supports mental health counseling for over 225 youth and adult clients weekly from East Chadsey-Condon. ProsperUS Detroit, a CDFI, is an experienced organization to support residents in developing small businesses through training, technical assistance, and loans for pre-concept and concept funding. Launched in 2006, the Chadsey-Condon Community Organization (CCCO) is transforming the focus community through resident engagement and leadership. The CCCO recently completed a comprehensive needs assessment used, in part, for strategies and expected outcomes of the ECCEA Alliance.
All partnering organizations are located in southwest Detroit – neighboring or within the East Chadsey-Condon community.
Results
Our Newberry affordable homeownership program will result in 60 new homeowners.
Before our Newberry initiative, there were no new mortgages in the census tract that includes Newberry for two decades.
5716 Wellness is an integrated health facility that now serves more than 10,000 lower-income families a year. It opened in 2011. Southwest Solutions revitalized a century-old warehouse, originally designed by Albert Kahn, to develop the building, which has become an essential community asset.