Formerly Equitable Development Academy / Affordable Housing Academy
Grow America’s Supporting Empowered Emerging Developers (SEED) Academy™ is an innovative, high-impact, intensive training and technical assistance program for start-up BIPOC and woman real estate developers.
SEED Academy, launched in 2012, has grown over the past decade into a program that partners with communities to provide emerging developers with training and technical assistance on the full range of subjects that a developer must know and understand to successfully enter the field. In-person, live-remote and self-guided training addresses the stages and steps of the development process and development finance. SEED Academy panel discussions bring local architects, lenders, tax credit investors, zoning officials and successful developers together to share their experience and advice with the SEED Academy participants.
Each SEED Academy ends with a capstone presentation by the Developers on their project to lenders, community leaders, and other real estate decision-makers to gain feedback and support. SEED Academy participants reconvene periodically to enhance their technical skills and knowledge, to share success stories, and to collectively identify barriers to BIPOC and woman-led developers in their communities.
Participants in SEED academies delivered by Grow America, and its partners have already met with success in Detroit, Omaha, Tulsa and Seattle. Expansion of the program is coming to more communities across the U.S. that seek to expand wealth building opportunities to more diverse developers and to meet affordable housing, and other neighborhood and community development goals in communities of color and low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.
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