Association of Oregon Community Development Organizations

Look at all the things we are doing in Oregon's communities

Founded in 1992, The Association of Oregon Community Development Organizations (AOCDO) is a membership-based organization that represents those with an interest in affordable housing and community development. This includes nearly 100 private nonprofit community development corporations (CDCs) and their partners. (See a list of members)

AOCDO helps CDCs improve the breadth and depth of their work in the community by:

providing opportunities for training, technical assistance, and peer support;
promoting and advocating for the industry at the local, state, and federal levels;
removing regulatory barriers;
monitoring industry trends; and
developing new opportunities for partnership.

Current major initiatives include:

Creating a peer support network geared toward rural nonprofits engaged in housing or other types of physical development
Establishing a technical assistance Support Team, a peer-to-peer team to provide organizational assessments and other technical assistance services to members
Advocating for CDC-related issues in the 2007 Legislative Session

View AOCDO's Work Plan and Draft Strategic Plan here

AOCDO Membership

About Community Development in Oregon

Housing gives people an opportunity and a foundation from which to build better lives. To succeed in life, everyone needs a place to call home. Community Development Corporations (CDCs) are community-based, nonprofit groups that provide the formal infrastructure and skill to develop affordable housing, engage in economic development, and implement other improvement projects. Using combinations of loans, private investments, philanthropic support, and government funds, CDCs in Oregon have developed over 11,000 units of affordable housing. Over 900 of these units are single-family homes that have been purchased by participants in CDC-sponsored homeownership counseling programs. This development has resulted in an investment of over $500 million in Oregon communities over the past 15 years.

The housing owned and operated by CDCs serves over 20,000 Oregonians. Approximately 40% of our residents are children. The majority of people living in CDC housing receive services to help them move from poverty to self-sufficiency including case management, homework clubs and other educational programs, access to asset building programs such as Individuals Development Accounts and homeownership training, and job training.

CDCs are more than just housing:

19 provide some type of social services;
18 run programs to help young people succeed in school and life;
12 are involved with microbusiness development programs;
10 are involved with workforce development;
8 are leading business district revitalization; and
3 run social enterprises, which create jobs and provide earned income.

Minutes from AOCDO's Annual Meeting on March 6, 2007

Stronger Voice for CDCs - AOCDO and CDN members vote to merge.

The Voting Members of the Community Development Network and the Association of Oregon Community Development Organizations voted on September 20 to approve a merger between the two organizations. The merger, which will become official on July 1, 2008, is intended to strengthen the influence of Oregon CDCs and increase capacity to meet the industry support needs of members statewide. In addition to increasing efficiency in operations, CDN and AOCDO hope to expand successful programs and practices that each of the respective organizations have developed with their members. The boards of AOCDO and CDN will work together over the next 9 months to address merger-related details.

Association of Oregon Community Development Organizations
847 NE 19th Avenue, Suite 150, Portland, OR 97232
tel: 503-223-4041 fax: 503-335-4075 email

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