Evelyn Burnett

 

Vice President of
Economic Development For
Cleveland Neighborhood Progress

 

by Shemar Grays, crew 5

 

 

Evelyn Burnett is the Vice President of economic opportunity for Cleveland Neighborhood Progress. Ms. Burnett also works with celebrities to raise money to make shelters for the homeless. She makes homes available and affordable for people that need it. She also helps Breakthrough Schools to build new school buildings. Her biggest project was to build community financial centers. They serve anybody regardless of their income, housing, or job. Anyone can come and get high quality financial training and services at these centers.

 

Evelyn Burnett is working to make a difference by challenging people to think about Cleveland’s neighborhoods differently. In the 70s and 80s people moved out the city to suburbs which hurt the inner city because cities need people, infrastructure and business. Without those things then the city will crumble financially. The city will crumble because when people and businesses move out, then they stop making investments in the neighborhood. She wants to reverse this process in Cleveland by giving people more economic opportunities to buy houses, start businesses, and invest in their local economies.

 

Her organization does a variety of things including creating “brick and mortar” structures that add to neighborhoods. They build things like Dave’s grocery stores, Family Dollar, and residential real estate. They raise funding from foundations and re-grant to re-distribute the funds to other community development corporations. Cleveland Neighborhood Progress does this to make sure that people live in good housing and can afford their housing even if the community is underserved. They improve the level of building projects, education, and health awareness. They also work across all areas of people and cultures.

 

While she loves her work today, Evelyn Burnett said that she actually got into her job by accident.  She holds a master’s degree in public administration. Usually people go into government planning when they receive a master’s in public administration; instead Ms. Burnett went into philanthropy. Ms. Burnett says when she was working in the area of philanthropy she felt “disconnected with people.” She said she wanted to work more with people so she came back to Cleveland from her job in New York City. Ms. Burnett also said she picked Cleveland because she recognized the public concerns which would allow her to work with people.

 

In the future Ms. Burnett hopes that lots and lots of people live in Cleveland and invest in Cleveland. They can do that by buying houses, constructing buildings, renting homes, and also shopping in Cleveland. She says her dream is that people living in Cleveland will be accessible for them to get. She says she thinks her dreams will someday come true.