Greater Dwight: Towards a Healthy, Just and Resilient Neighborhood 2034 - Greater Dwight Development Cooperation (GDDC) will use $150,000 in CED Planning funds to launch a new comprehensive neighborhood planning process to build the administrative capacity of the community to develop a fundable CED project in Greater Dwight, Connecticut. Greater Dwight is composed of three inner-city neighborhoods of New Haven, Connecticut (Dwight, Edgewood, and West River), with 14,637 residents and a poverty rate of 30.81%, far exceeding the 10% statewide poverty rate. Compared to the rest of Connecticut, Greater Dwight has a higher percentage of racial minorities and families who speak a language other than English at home. Comprehensive planning will allow GDDC to best engage with minority and foreign-born populations and ensure neighborhood development is responsive to the values of their communities. GDDC will partner with the Yale Urban Design Workshop to organize neighbors to develop an economic development strategy. CED Planning funds will be used for planning staff time, outreach costs to engage residents, paying a development consultant to expand details of planned economic development, and purchasing supplies such as poster mapping and access to data. Planning activities include the formation of a community advisory committee of neighborhood representatives, empirical study of economic conditions, a multi-day stakeholder meeting to compile community feedback, and the development of new economic development projects evaluated to meet the job criteria of the CED program. As a result of these efforts, GDDC will be well-positioned to submit a CED job creation project application, paving the way for sustainable economic development and job creation in Greater Dwight.
