Resources
The Community Development Innovation Forum 
On Wednesday June 11th more than 70 people gathered at the headquarters of Boston Private Bank to consider the future of the community development field in Massachusetts. The first public event of the Community Development Innovation Forum sponsored by Boston LISC and the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC) drew community development corporation staff and board members, lenders, funders, public agency staff, and academic researchers for a three hour discussion of the central questions facing community developers in 2008. Enter here for resources and presentations from the kick off meeting as well as updates for an upcoming recap meeting and meetings of the Forum's Working Groups.
The LISC Online Resource Library
The LISC Online Resource Library located on LISC's National web site, contains timely policy and funding announcements, in-depth information resources and distance learning opportunities for community development practitioners. Through it, we disseminate LISC’s and others’ lessons learned, and facilitate exchange among community development experts and practitioners nationwide. The Resource Library was originally launched in April 1999. A more interactive, redesigned version was launched in April 2002. The library continues to offer a growing collection of in-depth papers, templates, tools and guides on a variety of community development issues, but the sections have been reorganized to better meet user needs.
Citizens' Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA)
CHAPA is the non-profit umbrella organization for affordable housing and community development activities throughout Massachusetts Thier web site has a great deal of informaiton in the form of research papers and monthly "Housing Briefs" about the state of affordable housing in Massachustts. Established in 1967, CHAPA is the only statewide group which represents all interests in the housing field, including non-profit and for-profit developers, homeowners, tenants, bankers, real estate brokers, property managers, government officials, and others.
Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC)
The Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations is a trade association of over 65 non-profit, community-based organizations that seek to revitalize low and moderate income communities across the Commonwealth. MACDC supports community development corporations (CDCs) in their efforts to encourage social change and empower poor and working class people through activities such as affordable housing development and rehabilitation, commercial real estate development, employment training, small business development, and community organizing.
The Boston Indicators Report
The Indicators Report provides high quality data and information about Boston drawn from the wealth of research and information generated by public agencies, civic institutions, researchers, think tanks and community-based organizations. The Boston Indicators Project is a civic initiative coordinated by the Boston Foundation in partnership with the City of Boston/Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. Its goal is to engage the general public as well as civic and community-based institutions, the media, business and government in better understanding Boston’s key challenges and opportunities through shared access to high quality objective data.