OCCD 2024 Summer Annual Meeting

If you love hot weather, then June has been the month for you!  Ohio’s weather is always unpredictable, and this year has been one for the books.  The good news is we have our Summer Meeting coming up and it is going to be packed with presentations and information that will help you excel in your community development work.  The OCCD board and our committees have worked diligently to bring you information you can put into practice immediately. Our hybrid meeting is July 24-25^th in Columbus and registration is open!  And there is no reason for our valued members, YOU, not to attend.  This is a great opportunity to step back and take some time to get inspired by others doing great work in Ohio. 

Wednesday will start off with an introduction to our Summer Meeting and our OCCD Business Meeting, where we will elect our new board.  We will have State and HUD updates, which you will not want to miss, followed by a presentation by Torey Hollingsworth from the Ohio CDC Association on Innovative Programs she will highlight in Ohio.  We then will have last years’ Recipients of the President’s Award and the Department of the Year Award give updates on their programs.

Our luncheon will highlight the new awards for 2024 and our OCCD Foundation Scholarship Recipients.  Tony Core will present his enlightening Legislative Update.  Following that will be a captivating Panel of Community Development professionals discussing monitoring issues, findings, and best practices for addressing them.  The panel will consist of representatives from HUD, ODOD, and cities of all sizes.  Following that, we will have a panel discussing strategies for recruitment of MBE and WBE to meet Section 3 goals in federally, state, and locally funded projects.  American Rescue Act projects have inspirational MBE participation goals and recipients of these funds can be challenged to meet these goals.

Wednesday evening will feature a Reception celebrating 50 years of CDBG and then it is time to party like it’s 1970 at our Awards Banquet!  Attendees are encouraged to dress in 70’s attire for this event. 

Thursday’s program begins with a Competitive Grant Making Panel that will help you with strategies to use the competitive process to learn more about your community’s development needs and the capacity to meet them.  The meeting will end with two inventive housing projects featuring 3-D printed homes that are being planned in Ohio and a Cottage Community in Oxford.

Being a member of OCCD, attending the inspirational meetings and serving as the organizations Vice President this year has been a great experience.  I encourage ANY member of the organization to connect with Patricia Richards if you are interested in serving on one of our committees and getting more involved in OCCD.  It is a great organization doing great work in Ohio because of members getting involved.

See you in July!

Adam Blake, VP, OCCD