Thai Community Development Center

Thai Community Development Center was founded in April 1994 on the idea that all people have a basic right to a decent standard of living and quality of life.

The mission of Thai CDC is “to advance the social and economic well-being of low and moderate income individuals in the greater Los Angeles area through a broad and comprehensive community development strategy including human rights advocacy, affordable housing, access to healthcare, promotion of small businesses, neighborhood empowerment, and social enterprises.”

Thai CDC aims to create a thriving community by creating businesses and jobs, developing decent and affordable housing, and revitalizing public space. Thai CDC serves economically disadvantaged populations including immigrants, low-wage workers, welfare recipients and victims of human trafficking. Thai CDC’s form of community development emphasizes exchange and equity not charity to enhance a community’s current skills, abilities and resources. For Thai CDC, community based economic development is a long, gradual process. It involves the cooperation of many. It is possible to have growth through and move toward equity. We aim to improve the community while returning ownership of economic decisions to the people most effected by those decisions. There is an emphasis on resources that nourish households. Community development is more than a collection of streets and buildings. It involves putting money and resources into the local community to nourish the neighborhood. We develop people, activities and institutions that enable the community to build itself up. However, building a strong independent and interdependent community requires interacting with the world at large. Therefore, we are a community development organization that “thinks globally but acts locally.”