Join us as we unveil the Bronx's inaugural Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) — and celebrate our borough's assets, leadership, and shared future.
The Bronx Economic Development Summit celebrates the Bronx’s inaugural borough-wide Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS).
Since 2019, community, faith, and labor organizations have come together to create a unifying vision for the future of our borough’s economy that brings us together across neighborhoods and advances an economy that is equitable, resilient, and environmentally sustainable.
In 2024, with a planning grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA), the Bronx Economic Development Corporation (BXEDC) and Our Bronx (formerly the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition) partnered to coordinate and finalize this momentous accomplishment for our borough. Join us June 5th and 6th, 2026 at the historic Andrew Freedman Home as we celebrate the Bronx’s assets, leadership, and shared future.
What to Expect
At the Summit, you will have the opportunity to:
Explore the core strategies and approaches that guided the Bronx CEDS process;
Dig into the economic analysis that shaped the report’s priorities and action steps; and
Hear from visionary leaders from across the Bronx as well as from around the country and abroad, advancing bold, community-rooted economic development initiatives.
Why You Should Attend
We are designing the Summit to be welcoming to all. Expect a space to learn, connect, celebrate, be inspired, and think critically and holistically about what it will take to build an economy that truly works for all Bronx residents.
Speakers
We are excited to showcase visionary leaders from across the Bronx, as well as from across the US and abroad, who are advancing work that builds shared wealth, democratic decision-making, and collective ownership.
A Bronx-wide economic development plan focused on environmental resilience and shared ownership.
In 2025, we spent a year engaging the public, community and business leaders, experts, and elected officials through surveys, focus groups, public assemblies, and interviews. If you were one of the hundreds of Bronxites who participated in that process, thank you! We have now gathered all of that data and insight and compiled it into a first draft of the Bronx’s first ever Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy.
The main components of the Bronx CEDS include:
A SWOT analysis of the Bronx economy (identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats).
A set of strategies and priority projects aimed at fostering inclusive economic resilience and growth.
A measurable framework to track outputs and outcomes over time.
Explore the Program at a Glance
Andrew Freedman Home
1125 Grand Concourse, Bronx NY
Friday June 5th and Saturday June 6th, 2026
Friday June 5th, 2026
On Friday, we are inviting speakers to share how economic development is being reformed and revived in communities across the country. The sessions will address the intersections of national and local landscapes, and invite local Bronx and New York City participants to be inspired and make connections between the challenges and opportunities in other places and our own place here. Join us for the reception as well to make new friends and catch up with your old ones!
11:30am: Registration Opens
12:30pm: Welcome Remarks
1pm - 2pm: Lunch and Opening Keynote Speakers
Charli Cooksey Executive Director, WEPOWER St. Louis
Nneka Onwuzurike, The Community WEB
2:15pm - 3:30pm: Session Block 1
Workshop 1: Community Wealth and Real Estate
Workshop 2: Broad Based Employee Ownership
Workshop 3: “Ownership Lens” Impact Investing
3:30pm - 4pm: Break
4pm - 5:15pm: Session Block 2
Workshop 1: Local Government Leadership for Shared Ownership
Workshop 2: Anchor Institution Roles and Strategies
5:30pm - 6:15pm: Closing Remarks and Reflections
Charli Cooksey Executive Director, WEPOWER St. Louis
Nneka Onwuzurike, The Community WEB
Sandra Lobo, Our Bronx
6:30pm - 8pm: Networking Reception (Andrew Freedman Home)
Saturday June 6th, 2026
On Saturday, our programming will focus more specifically on our beloved Bronx. Speakers and sessions will contextualize the history and trajectory that brought us to this historic boroughwide process and vision, and connect current economic conditions to pressing challenges and opportunities for the borough and the city overall in the current moment. The sessions will draw on content from the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) draft and invite Bronx community members and practitioners into dialogues about how the CEDS can guide and coordinate our work into the future. And of course, at the end, we’ll celebrate, eat, drink, and dance, and toast to the brighter Bronx future we will build together.
9:30am - 10:30am: Breakfast and Registration
10:30am - 11am: Opening Remarks: Introducing the Bronx CEDS
11am - 12:15pm: Session Block 3
Workshop 1: Energy Resilience Initiatives in the Bronx
Workshop 2: Housing Affordability and Ownership
Workshop 3: Small Business Resilience
12:30pm - 1:30pm: Lunch and Keynote Speaker
1:45pm - 3pm: Session Block 4
Workshop 1: Bronx Worker Ownership Strategy Session
Workshop 2: Bronx Community and Local Finance
Workshop 3: Bronx Manufacturing and Industry
Workshop 4: Bronx Brownfield Revitalization
3:30pm - 4:30pm: Closing Reflections and Next Steps
4:30pm - 6:30pm: Celebration and Networking Reception
Learn more about successful strategies for community ownership we can scale:
Our Bronx-wide Coalition Partners
Our Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) builds on the work of the Bronx-wide Coalition—a group of community, faith, and labor organizations from across the Bronx—while drawing lessons from communities across the globe working to transform their local economies. Our work together since 2019 builds on decades of organizing, direct services, advocacy, and more by organizations and community members across the Bronx.
As a co-founder and coordination team member, Our Bronx brings leadership and development around community organizing and economic democracy to our partners.
