Indepth analysis of persistant problems in the field of community development. Woodstock's research reports contribute to the body of knowledge used by policymakers and community development practitioners.
Describes the reporting and disclosure requirements for non-profit
organizations entering into CRA agreements with financial institutions
as part of a series of CRA reforms passed as part of the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.
This report analyzes how sectoral networks, a fairly recent innovation in microenterprise development in the United States, facilitate the establishment of formal and informal alliances between firms producing similar products or services. The programs profiled are: Rural Ohio's Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (ACEnet) Food Ventures program; and the Chicago-based Women's Business Development Center's (WBDC) Apparel Roundtable. The report describes each program's technical assistance, mentorship, and networking services and how the programs affect job creation, increased sales, and improved entrepreneurial capacity.
This report provides a new analysis of the payday
lending industry and its customers. Using data obtained from the
Illinois Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) and various other
sources, it finds major faults in the key defenses that the industry
has used against stronger consumer regulation.
This analysis concludes that current programs reach a small fraction of the population of lower income people. While the variety of training programs currently offered could be improved in a number of ways, the greater challenge is to figure out how to reach significantly more people with more substantive training.
