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Southeast Quality of Life <br />Strategic Neighborhood Action Plan <br />orientation. Fulfilling these priorities requires an attempt to undertake <br />development in a way that preserves local control of productive assets through <br />institutions that are anchored in and accountable to the community. Such <br />institutions build the capacity of the neighborhood in a very tangible way --- <br />through broad community ownership. <br />Community Based Economic Enterprises rely on cooperative or collective <br />ownership of shares of an enterprise. Shares may have been acquired initially <br />by sweat equity. Jeff Shavelson, in his book _Third Wav A Sourcebook <br />innovations in Communit Owned Enterprise identified the best Community <br />Development Corporation owned enterprises are those that match the <br />capabilities and interests of their local communities with the product or service <br />they produce. Examples include the repair of automobiles; the manufacture of <br />modular furniture for hotels with single occupancy rooms; or the introduction <br />of recycling projects to urban areas with problems of litter and high <br />unemployment. <br />Mom's Enterprises, owned by the Blackbelt Human Resource Development <br />Center, is the manufacturer of an all purpose cleaner that is sold door -to door <br />and to local outlets. The enterprise employs 5-10 workers who are referred by <br />the local JTPA office. A primary mission of the enterprise is the training of <br />minority women. In the research for Mom's Enterprises they turned to the <br />University of Alabama that identified three criteria for a product's commercial <br />viability: <br />1 - The product must be easily produced and distributed; <br />2 - The product must meet the needs of job training for the area's low- <br />income, minority residents; and <br />3 - That it establishes a competitive niche in the market. <br />A product which meets the initial criteria would be the creation of a child care <br />collective. Future arrangements might include the development of a SEQL <br />owned child care center or the creation of self-employment opportunities in <br />child care. <br />63 <br />