Our Purpose

The Urban Development Accelerator (UDA) is a bold new initiative that reflects the National Urban League’s unwavering commitment to empowering affiliates to embrace community and real estate development as a cornerstone for advancing their missions, ensuring long-term sustainability, and transforming the communities they serve.

 

Our Approach

Launched in 2024, UDA brought together a pioneering inaugural cohort of five Urban League affiliates—the Greater Sacramento Urban League, Springfield Urban League, Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio, Urban League of Nebraska, and Urban League of the Upstate. These affiliates, each bringing unique strengths and local knowledge, have embraced the opportunity to expand their development expertise through shared learning, mentorship from seasoned developers, and direct, hands-on engagement with real estate initiatives. Together, they represent a vanguard of Urban League leaders driving forward a new era of community investment.

 UDA has sparked new ways of thinking—prompting affiliates to reimagine what is possible when real estate is leveraged as a core strategy for creating economic stability, advancing generational wealth, and ensuring community sustainability.

With every step, we grow closer to ensuring that Black and underserved communities not only survive but thrive, creating vibrant, sustainable futures for generations to come. We look forward to the exciting journey ahead and to the continued success of the Urban Development Accelerator in shaping the future of the Urban League movement.

 

Highlights From Our Previous Events