COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION OF OREGON | ROCKWOOD COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

The East County Business Bridge was launched in partnership with the Small Business Administration. We work with community partners to stimulate entrepreneurship in Rockwood and East Multnomah County. As part of the American Rescue Plan, we are engaging thousands of BIPOC, immigrant, refugee people and women, veterans, and socially disadvantaged individuals to help them by using culturally specific outreach with business formation to launch new small businesses or help existing small businesses flourish.

A new CDFI, we make micro-loans that accomplish four roles: 1. It develops standardized materials and programs that can be adapted to local community needs, trains and develops local staff; and supports the creation of locally focused capital providers. 2. It acts as a centralized capital provider, aggregating projects, raising capital from government and private sources, and distributing capital to the local funding agencies. 3. It is itself a diverse, transparent and representative entity that embodies the very values that it 4. Finally, it undertakes its own financing programs, in part to test new approaches that can then be disseminated throughout the local networks.

Rockwood Workforce Development is designed to provide comprehensive training and support to individuals seeking to improve their employability and attain stable, family-sustaining jobs. The program includes: · Laying foundation for acquiring professional training for Rockwood CHW to become trainers and to write and own certified CHW training curriculum · Certified Community Health Worker (CHW) training, which will equip participants with the skills and knowledge necessary to support and empower individuals and communities to make informed decisions about their health and well-being. · expansion of community and continual learning opportunities

The Rockwood Food System Collaborative (RFSC) works for the flourishing of all in east Multnomah County. We focus on the Rockwood neighborhood because it has a geographic cluster of food-related assets, and it also has Oregon’s largest population of people of color, immigrants, refugees and low-income families. We use food, nutritional education, business incubation and agricultural development as tools to help our neighbors attain better health outcomes, greater equity, more prosperity, a cleaner environment, and more social capital. We work collaboratively to align our missions, visions and values; to resource each other; to seek outside resources; and, to work on specific projects and strategies together.