Name Change Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                                                                   Contact:   Lori Warren
Thursday, October 18, 2007                                                                                  510-251-2600 x 103
                                                                                                                                    lwarren@insightcced.org

National Economic Development and Law Center 
is now the
 Insight Center for Community Economic Development

New Name. New Website. Same Commitment to Innovative Research and Action

October 18, 2007. Oakland, CA – Today, the National Economic Development and Law Center (NEDLC) officially became the Insight Center for Community Economic Development (Insight Center). The Insight Center will continue to be a national research, consulting and legal organization dedicated to helping people and communities become, and remain, economically secure.

“Our name has evolved as our focus has evolved,” said Roger Clay, President of the Insight Center. First established as a War on Poverty program in 1969, NEDLC provided legal assistance to community development corporations and later added economic development to its services. In the 80s and 90s, the Insight Center’s multi-disciplinary approach expanded to an even wider array of community economic development strategies including industry-focused workforce development and the economic impact of early childcare and education.

“Although providing legal support to community economic development organizations is one of our unique capabilities, and remains an integral part of our strategy,” continues Clay, “we needed a name that more accurately reflects the scope of our current work, the contribution we strive to make to the field, and the passion and commitment we feel for what we do. Providing insightful solutions that help build strong communities has always been our goal, now it’s also in our name.”

The Insight Center has a long history of insights and innovation under its old name.

• In the Insight Center’s first 15 years, the organization supported the creation of over 500 community-based development corporations around the country, from Harlem and the South Bronx to East Los Angeles and the Navajo Reservation, from the Mississippi Delta to North Dakota. The Insight Center was the only national organization that offered a comprehensive and coherent approach to CED, helping to create housing, jobs, health care facilities, and businesses.
  
• As it has for the past 38 years, the Insight Center continues its commitment to providing legal assistance to community organizations to ensure that  development projects are feasible, community gains can be realized, and organizations are sustainable.
  
• The Insight Center has catalyzed the sector-based economic development approach that utilizes industry partnerships to solve workforce and economic development challenges to benefit businesses, unemployed and low-wage workers, and their local economy. It also created and manages the National Network of Sector Partners (NNSP), a membership-based resource center for the hundreds of sector initiatives now underway in more than 20 industries, and for the policymakers who support the sector approach.
  
• The Insight Center was the first national organization in the US to develop and promote a model that quantifies the economic impact of the early care and education (ECE) industry to the local economy. This research provides support for reframing the ECE industry as an economic development tool, rather than as a social service expenditure, and is used to help spark change in investment strategies and encourage public policy that strengthens the industry.
  
• The Insight Center has integrated diverse strategies to build assets for individuals and communities to close the racial wealth gap – conducting research to support minority and women-owned businesses, documenting best practices to expand matched savings accounts for low-wage workers, and advising nonprofit economic-development corporations on the formation of worker-owned cooperatives.
  
• The Insight Center was one of four organizations that launched the Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Project, an innovative, nation-wide effort to gain support for proven strategies to help low-income families reach economic self-sufficiency. The Insight Center also leads the California arm of this initiative, Californians for Family Economic Self-Sufficiency (CFESS), a coalition of over 400 public and non-profit organizations. As part of that effort, the Insight Center created California’s first-ever on-line benefits calculator which uses a realistic, localized cost of living measure to track families’ progress toward economic security. 

In addition to a new name and a new logo, the Insight Center has launched a new website (www.insightcced.org) that has been designed to make the organization’s extensive body of work more accessible. The website also includes virtual learning communities and tools that help foster the type of systemic change that creates long-term economic security for families, seniors, and the communities in which they live.

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