West Angeles CDC was founded in early 1994 as an outreach program of West Angeles
Church of God in Christ, then a 15,000-member congregation in the Crenshaw District of
Los Angeles. Dr. Lula Ballton and Bishop Charles E. Blake, together with Trustees of West
Angeles Church, founded the CDC to expand the compassionate outreach and neighborhood
development ministries of the church in the face of mounting problems of poverty and
injustice in the surrounding community.
Lack of jobs, business investment and affordable, decent housing, struggling schools, endemic
homelessness and gang activity were all signs that new, long-term improvements were needed. At
the same time, new business and community-building activities had also begun and were growing. These
signs were new life and hope on which to build. In January 1994, the CDC was incorporated as a
nonprofit organization to bring together people and resources to help develop the community.
With strong, stable support from West Angeles Church and through the leadership of Dr. Ballton, the
CDC has grown faster than expected. Now developer of nearly $50 million of real estate, manager of
nearly a dozen programs, the CDC's operating budget has grown from $100,000 in 1994 to nearly $3
million in 2006. |
