RECERTIFICATION AS A PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY
AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPER(PCED)
About the CDC
The Community Development Council (CDC) is a national nonprofit organization with its office in Atlanta, GA. CDC’s mission is to improve professional training and practice in community development. Currently, the CDC oversees five Community Development Institutes, including sites in Illinois, Arkansas, Texas, West Virginia, and Idaho.
Furthermore, CDC also certifies individuals who demonstrate their experience, knowledge, and abilities as community development professionals. Individuals who successfully meet the criteria for certification receive CDC’s designation, “Professional Community and Economic Developer” (PCED). The certification and recertification processes are managed by CDC and are not controlled by individual CDI sites.
Key Points about Recertification
Your PCED certification is valid for a period of three years. After that, you can apply to the CDC in order to continue your certification as a PCED. The application at http://www.cdcouncil.com/ccd2.htm is fairly self-explanatory, but several key points should be emphasized.
Please apply for recertification approximately one month before your current certification ends. Technically, the CDC can refuse to grant re-certification if your certification lapses, but they usually overlook a short-term gap (e.g., one month or so).
In order to earn re-certification, you must earn 8 points for activities that you have done since the date of your last certification (i.e., over the past three years). To be clear, if you apply for re-certification in 2011, only activities since your certification in 2008 will count.
Points toward recertification are earned for professional training, including Advanced Year CDI, participation and/or presentations at conferences, publications, serving on a board or committee of a CD-related organization, and other contributions to the field of community development.
Applicants do not receive recertification points for their additional time in a community development job. However, many activities that may be related to your job will count. For example, if you are asked to present at a state conference because of your expertise on project financing, the presentation will earn you a point toward certification. If you write a newspaper article on a CD project that you did as part of your job, the article counts toward recertification.
If you have completed activities that are related to Community Development, but are not listed, you can still claim them. However, make a case for how the activity relates to community development, how it shows an application of community development, or furthers your knowledge of community development.
The CDC just raised the fee for re-certification to $200 at the August 2010 meeting (sorry to report). The fee must be paid before CDC will review your application.
Recertification Questions??
If you have questions about the recertification process or the application form, please contact John Gruidl at 309-298-2984 or
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