The Well Community Development Corporation

Restoring housing: vacancies account for nearly a fourth (21.9%) of all homes in The neighborhood. Only 30% of middlebury homes are owner occupied, whereas a healthy housing maket displays a 60-70% home ownership rate. The Well cdc's restoring housing initiative focuses on developing a healthy housing pipeline that provides residents The power to choose The type of housing that fits their current contect and future aspirations. The Well cdc's goal is to support The whole spectrum of housing needs within The middlebury Community including both rehabs and ""missing middle"" housing (duplexes, triplexes, quads). The Well seeks to maintain long term affordability and influence The housing market by owning 15% of rentals in The neighborhood. The Well plans to acquire 270 houses over The next 10 years and rehab them in addition to building 125 new build units. Currently The Well currently owns 91 properties and, in 2023, identified and worked on site plans for The next round of new build duplexes. The Well also submitted for funding that will go towards building two new duplexes in 2025. To enable a pathway to homeownership, The Well cdc has created a resident services department that creates holistic services that encourage resident stability through property management, workforce Development, local school support and mental health services. In addition, The Well cdc has an accessible Community tool library and home maintenance classes to increase homeownership skills. These combined efforts are to increase homeownership from 22% to 78% in The middlebury neighborhood.

Supporting place:mason clc, The k-6 elementary school located in The middlebury neighborhood, has a 63% student mobility rate. To combat this reality, The Well cdc seeks to develop deeper social cohesion within middlebury to not only decrease The student transiency rate, but to connect people to The place they live and each other through The built environment. The akron hope program builds relationships and invests resources into students, families, and teachers to increase engagement and family stability, creating access ti quality homes and livable wages. Akron hope partners with mason clcand helen arnold clc to provide classroom tutoring, Community connection events, and holiday outreach events.during 2023, The Well cdc has held 13 Community connection events and supported 500 students through adopt-a-classroom.

Creating economy:less than 1% of middlebury residents live and work inside The neighborhood while 11,000+ jobs exist at local businesses thin The Community. The middlebury Community has a 10.3% unemployment rate, more than double The rates of greater akron and summit county. To combat this reality, our creating economy initiative encourages The adaptive reuse of our current assets to support entrepreneurship, career pathways, and engagement with anchor institutions. The Well cdc has adopted The following programs and focuses to aid in this: akron food works, 647 coffee, career Development, and middlebury commercial redevelopment.akron food works promotes food entrepreneurship in middlebury and The greater akron area by helping entrepreneurs create, incubte, and elevate their business. We work with food entrepreneurs of all stages by poviding a low-risk licnesed physical space along with training and technical assistance, leveraging recources to help remove barriers, and connecting entrepreneurs to sales opportunities to grow their business.647 coffee seeks to operate as a successful social enterprise creating a sense of place for neighbors and serving as The front porch to The Well cdc and The greater middlebury neighborhood. Sales have finally reached, and exceeded, pre-pandemic levels.career Development is a partnership of local Community organizations that create a collaborative, trauma informed, and holistic approach to workforce Development that removes barriers to quality, living wage careers. This supports upward economic mobility and financial resiliency in The middlebury neighborhood and The greater akron area. The program offers two career tracks, customer service and manufacturing.lastly, to preserve The bones of The middlebury neighborhood, The Well cdc focuses on commercial redevelopment to both repurpose already exisiting spaces and explore ways to create entrepreneurial opportunities within those spaces. The facilities at 647 e market st, 221 beaver st, and 816 e martket st are included in The Well cdc's redevelopment efforts.the long-term goal of The Well's creating economy initiative is to decrease The unemplyment rate from 10% to 5%. To date, The Well cdc has engaged 143 akron food works kitchen users, hosted 27 career Development cohorts since its creation in 2020, and continued serving as a source for entrepreneurial opportunities and economic mobility tyhrough 647 coffee, facilities, and programming.

Other program services - operations