CANDO: Who We Are

Facts
Our Mission
Board of Directors
Historical Perspective
International contacts
Staff Descriptions

Facts:
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In 1999 CANDO celebrated its 20th Anniversary. Over two decades, CANDO and its members have helped spur more than $1 billion in cumulative investment in the neighborhoods of Chicago. CANDO is now the largest citywide coalition of neighborhood economic development organizations in the United States

CANDO is a membership organization comprised of:

• Voting Members
  -over 80 neighborhood-based development organizations in Chicago
• Affiliate Members
  -over 130 for-profit and citywide nonprofit entities.

To become a member, or view a list of current members, go to our Become a Member page.

Our Mission:
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Our mission is to promote commercial and industrial revitalization in Chicago's neighborhoods. Neighborhood economic development is an efficient, equitable and critical strategy for community revitalization.

Our coalition is dedicated to supporting neighborhood-based development organizations. These organizations give community residents and businesses the opportunity to share in shaping their economic future, to maximize the number of jobs and the amount of money that stays within that community, and generally to improve the quality of Chicago neighborhood life.

We CAN DO! CANDO is a coalition that is dedicated to building and supporting the economies of Chicago's neighborhoods-whether that involves advocacy for local job-training programs, efforts to attract industrial and retail businesses into Chicago's communities, or instructing our members in brownfield redevelopment. Some of our primary functions:

• Serve as a liaison between our members and government agencies, foundations, news media, and other institutions;
• Provide technical assistance to neighborhood development organizations;
• Make financing available to neighborhood retail and industrial businesses;
• Formulate public policies or respond to existing ones without regard to partisan politics.

To see more detailed descriptions of our work and what we CAN DO for you, go to the home page and choose from one of our four program areas.

Board of Directors:
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CANDO is governed by its board of directors. Representatives of our Voting Members are represented on this board, so CANDO is closely tied to what our neighborhood-based members desire, think, and require to improve their local economies. Affiliate Members are also represented; they represent Chicago's major financial institutions, real estate development firms, and citywide non-profits.

2000 CANDO Board of Directors

Historical Perspective:
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Community economic development is a movement that began in the 1960s, primarily as a reaction to the beginnings of dis-investment in inner-city areas, as businesses and people flocked to the suburbs. Since the 1960's, cities have faced an interrelated set of problems: mass exodus of businesses and industry; degradation of the urban environment; increasing dis-investment in infrastructure; and division of populations according to race and class.

Today, there are as many as 5,000 CDCs, or Community Development Corporations, in both city and rural areas of America. Though they may vary in size and status, they are similar in that they:

• Operate within recognized geographic boundaries, that is, a neighborhood;
• Represent the residents of that neighborhood;
• Pursue housing and/or economic development projects to strengthen or rebuild their local community economies;
• Advocate for assistance from public and private entities.

CANDO is a coalition of CDCs and other community-based organizations (CBOs, such as chambers of commerce, church groups, etc.) that focus on such efforts. Among other things, our members:

• Manage real estate development projects
• Finance projects
• Own and manage properties
• Provide local job-training programs
• Encourage linkages between residents and community businesses

All of our members rely heavily on partnerships-with each other, with public entities, and with private corporations-to achieve their goals. These are the people who, day by day, make our neighborhoods better places to live, work, play, and shop.

International contacts:
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Every year CANDO hosts a significant number of visitors from around the world. Imagine, people from around the world want to learn what it is that CANDO and its members are doing! During 1997 alone, CANDO received visitors from 22 nations:

Staff Descriptions:
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TED WYSOCKI, President and CEO, has led CANDO since 1984. In 2000, Ted will mark his 26th year of service in Neighborhood Planning. He is a board member of the National Community Re-investment Coalition, the nation's largest advocacy group in support of the Community Reinvestment Act, and he serves on the Neighborhood Lending Review Boards for First Chicago and Harris Bank. Ted just completed a three-year term on the Federal Reserve Board's Consumer Advisory Council, serving as vice-chair of the Bank Regulation Committee in his last year.

PATRICIA BELL, Director of the DEED Program, has over twenty years of neighborhood experience as a project coordinator for the Douglas Development Corporation and Executive Director of the Lawndale Local Development Corporation. Pat serves on the Steering Committee and the Constituency-building Committee of National Community Building Network. Pat joined CANDO in 1984.

VERONICA GONZALEZ, Associate Director of the DEED Program, has her B.A. in Public Policy from the University of Chicago, with an emphasis on community economic development for Chicago's low-income communities. She has experience with youth program development, specifically working with non-traditional students and gang intervention strategies.

HOLLY MARSHALL, Associate Director of the DEED Program, comes to CANDO from Olive-Harvey College, where she coordinated student services and special projects for an alternative high school program. She has her B.A. from UC-Santa Barbara, and has done Masters course work at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration.

STEVEN McCULLOUGH, Director of Finance, Steven is responsible for CANDO's micro-lending program, SELF. He has a commitment to working with communities, and a desire to use his talents with entrepreneurs. Previously, Steven spent two years as a Senior Consultant with Andersen Consulting's Strategy Practice. Prior to that, he spent over seven years at the Quaker Oats Company. Steven earned his MBA in Finance & Marketing from the University of Chicago in 1996.

ANGELA MOORE, Associate Director of Member Services, joined CANDO in June of 1999. Angela has previous experience at Designs for Change, an education research and advocacy organization, where she helped to develop a national Academy for Urban School Change. Angela has her B.A. in Sociology from Bradley University in Peoria, IL. Angela is responsible for CANDO's member relations: coordinating services and resources for CANDO members, helping to recruit new members, and coordinating our regional member meetings. She also edits our monthly newsletter, LINK (see our What's New? page).

LAURA CARRASCO, Staff Assistant of Operations, joined us after having worked as an administrative assistant for a Chicago-based attorney. Laura has her certificate in Office Technology from the Westside Technical Institute.