Organizational History

NCDI was founded in 2000 with the mission of building capacity for social change in traditionally marginalized communities. The organization grew out of the philosophies and community building work of the Community Development Institute (CDI), an organization founded by Omowale Satterwhite in 1979 that works to increase the standard of living for people of color in East Palo Alto, California and other similar communities around the country. The experiences of CDI formed the core of NCDI’s social change philosophy—that low-income communities and communities of color can shape their own social change process when provided with the tools and information necessary to achieve their goals.

After working for over a quarter century with communities of color, Omowale Satterwhite founded NCDI to take the methods and resources developed into the field and use them to build capacity in marginalized communities across the nation. True to its roots, NCDI has remained focused on helping under-resourced communities find their own solutions, creating a space where the voices of the community can be heard, and providing the knowledge-base and practices to make social change a reality.

After only a few short years, NCDI has expanded its work beyond California to include partnerships in the South and the Midwest. To date, NCDI has worked with over a thousand non-profits, community leaders, and foundations to develop custom/specific strategies for their communities. We look forward to continuing to expand our reach as we strive to facilitate measurable change in marginalized communities.

Philosophy

NCDI approaches our work with the philosophy that capacity-building is part of a much larger and more purposeful change process. We believe that society as a whole is enhanced when communities are strong—and communities can only be strong when they are given the resources and knowledge/information to define their own path for change.

Through our work, NCDI recognizes that communities of color face significant challenges due to pervasive structural racism, flawed public policy, economic distress, and cultural hegemony/repression. As a result of these fundamental barriers, communities must overcome incredible odds when striving to build a solid foundation for meaningful social transformation. NCDI seeks to bolster the efforts of local communities by strengthening their capacity to overcome these challenges and capitalize upon their own inherent wisdom and capability to bring about social change.

The ultimate goal of our work is to build sustainable capacity for social change in communities of color that will contribute to a more democratic, equitable, and just society.