"In 1968 during a period of significant civil unrest, not unlike today, the MSU Board of Trustees established the unit that would become the MSU Center for Community and Economic Development. Over that 50 year + history, faculty, students and community partners have worked to co-create economic and community development initiatives with disenfranchised communities. These partnerships are even more critical today to reverse and overcome economic and community development efforts driven by explicit and/or implicit white power and privilege that continue to persist in our society. While some progress has been made in the past we have consistently realized much more needs to be done. Our CCED team reaffirms our continuing commitment to our partnership principles and practices of equity and inclusion with communities of color to overcome historic and ongoing economic and community oppression. We look forward to standing with those who seek to create a more racially just and equitable society." —MSU CCED Commitment to Equity

Our Regional Economic Innovation team is working diligently to ensure that our work and the work of our partners benefit communities in need, especially people of color. We are dedicated to creating research and practices that will contribute to equity, justice, and prosperity for all, beginning with focusing on those whose systems have failed them.

Please, review our past projects and implementations that helped their targeted communities. We believe these projects can help begin conversations and create policies benefitting racial and societal equity. We encourage you to submit ideas on our Get Involved page that will help black communities and all disproportionately represented peoples receive economic aid and justice.

—The REI Team

• Get Involved
• MSU CCED Commitment to Equity

Past Research and Implementations

• Attracting and Retaining Triple Bottom Line Enterprises
• Digital Literacy: Further Developing Michigan’s Twenty-First Century Workforce
• Educational Attainment as an Economic Driver for States, Regions and Communities
• Promotion of Cooperative Enterprises in Distressed Urban and Rural Communities
• Saginaw Valley State University & City of Saginaw: Forming New Ties for the Future
• Publicly-Operated Telework Facilities: An Economic Development Opportunity for Michigan’s Rural and Tourism-Oriented Communities
• Greater Lansing Food Bank (GLFB) Garden Project

Risk Takers: Opening the Doors to Local Investment with Angela Barbash

Risk Takers: Becoming Inclusive of Detroit's Underground Economy with Rita Fields