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The MSU EDA University Center for Regional Economic Innovation is excited to announce Melissa Davis as an additional CLP awardee for 2024.
Co-Learning Plans (CLPs) focus on spurring economic growth and development in economically challenged communities. Funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce - Economic Development Administration (EDA), REI has been a pivotal force since 2011. The CLP Project selection is a competitive process. REI typically funds two to four Co-Learning Projects each year, and authors may receive up to $8,000 in support. CLPs can be written by practitioners, decision-makers, community leaders, entrepreneurs, scholars, or other stakeholders. CLP authors are expected to conduct research, engage in co-learning with peers, write a Co-Learning Plan, develop a dissemination plan, identify potential Innovation Fellows, and present at the Innovate Michigan! Summit.
Davis is the managing director of New Power Tour (NPT), a 501(c)(3) located in Hancock, MI. Established in 2006, NPT defines its mission to increase the use of renewable, water and energy efficient technologies. The CLP, Strategy to Develop a Diversified Community Investment Fund (DCIF), seeks to reverse the habitual outsourcing of dollars back to the main streets of Houghton and Keweenaw counties in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where many locally-owned businesses have gradually shuttered throughout the last five decades. A Diversified Community Investment Fund is a type of community-scale fund that invests primarily in real estate, but also invests in local businesses and can do so with investment capital raised publicly from within the fund’s own community, including non-accredited investors. A DCIF can distribute profits to its community investors, thereby creating a wealth-building opportunity for everyone, while contributing to a more vigorous local economy.
This CLP proposes to introduce people to crowd-capitalization, build infrastructure for large community conversations, and use knowledge gained to establish a local Diversified Community Investment Fund.
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