Rise offers human and financial resources and training support to local community development corporations (CDCs) and the St. Louis community development sector as a whole. Through these initiatives we facilitate partnerships to undertake comprehensive approaches to community development.

CDC Capacity Building Program

With the support of local banks and foundations, and local and federal government agencies, Rise provides capacity building technical assistance to St. Louis area community development corporations (CDCs). Our capacity building programs help CDCs successfully undertake the revitalization of neighborhoods.

We undertake in-depth organizational assessments of all program participants, design capacity building plans based on these assessments and annually reassess programs to determine success.

What all this really means

Many organizations have big goals such as neighborhood revitalization, organizational restructuring, acquiring neglected properties, and others. Despite ambitious undertakings, community development non-profits are often understaffed and lack the work hours needed to accomplish what they set out to do.

That’s where Rise comes in. We work with these organizations to find out how their current capacity is functioning and where the gaps are between what they are able to do and what they want to be able to do. Rise provides staff resources to put together plans and fill in gaps in expertise, time and resources to help expand the capacity of an organization so they can do more.

Rise’s capacity building includes individualized technical assistance as well as group training classes for area CDCs. Our individualized technical assistance focuses on six categories of organizational capacity development:

  • Leadership and Community Engagement

  • Small business modeled operations

  • Organizational financial management

  • Organizational development

  • Planning, implementation and evaluation

  • Community support

Partnerships and Network Support

Our neighborhood-based partners benefit from the greater financial capacity and expertise we bring to development projects. The partners participate in the project ownership, have the opportunity to gain more hands-on experience in the development process and gain long-term financial sustainability.

Group Training Sessions

Our group training classes cover a broad range of organizational development and neighborhood revitalization topics and are taught by in-house Rise staff and outside experts in a variety of specialty areas.

The topic and scope of the training may vary greatly depending on a number of factors but regardless of what topic is covered, the goals of informing and facilitating discussion remain. Typically held quarterly, these trainings give us the ability to brainstorm, collaborate, and devise solutions to local issues in the community. Below is information on our upcoming training:

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Here are some example summaries of recent training sessions from 2015, so you can get a better idea of what actually happens at these events.

Check back here or over at our events page for updated information. To access materials from archived trainings, go to the events page, put in the date of the workshop you are looking for in the search box, and when the training announcement comes up, look for the links to materials.

For more information on Rise’s group training schedule, please contact Brian Hurd, Technical Assistance Program Manager, at [email protected] or by phone at (314) 333-7012.