Sustainable Communities-WEST

What is a Sustainable Community?

Sustainable Communities are ones that are good places to live, do business, work, and raise families. Sustainable Communities Initiatives seeks to improve whole communities by making them healthier, more competitive, and better connected with the economic mainstream.

SCI – West is an initiative funded by the Local Initiative Support Corporation(LISC). It looks at West Philadelphia across the board: not simply building affordable housing, but also improving transit to get to work from that housing; providing financial training so people can keep their homes; connecting them with jobs and job skills so they can improve their economic circumstances; and improving public safety so people can feel protected in their homes.

The SCI-West strategy has five principal parts:

• Expanding capital investment in housing and other real estate
• Increasing family income and wealth
• Stimulating local economic activity and connections to regional economies
• Improving access to quality education
• Supporting healthy environments and lifestyles

SCI-West works to achieve these goals through a comprehensive plan for change driven by community-based organizations already achieving success in the area. The community-based partners selected to participate in this initiative are: People's Emergency Center, The Partnership CDC, University City District, and The Enterprise Center CDC. These are all established and capable community-based organizations with significant track records that are now working collaboratively to plan and implement the initiative.

For more information regarding sustainable communities, please Iola Harper, Director SCI-WEST.

For information about Sustainable Communities Nationwide click here.

SCI-WEST Community News

September 2008