Our programs

Community-led development

PODER Emma believes that the future of the neighborhood should be designed and led by people who live here! In order to support community members’ ability to participate actively in leadership, we are also dedicated to supporting each other as neighbors to ensure that our basic needs are met.

  • This is open to all residents of the Emma neighborhood and the surrounding Erwin School District.  Our membership program is designed to build trusting relationships and an engaged community.  PODER Emma’s Community Outreach Team visits members to distribute mobile home safety materials, including motion detector lights, anti-theft plates, and heat tape.  The outreach team also visits members regularly to share important information and dialogue about community priorities. 

  • The Neighborhood Council works to make sure that community voices are heard when important decisions are made that affect our community, including planning, zoning, and new development.  The Council also stewards the Neighborhood Planning process and implementation of the Emma Community Plan, to ensure that local government, institutions, and agencies work in alignment with our community’s vision for the future.  In 2018 the first plan was finalized to identify community-based strategies to prevent displacement, and in 2023 we finalized a new Emma Community Plan that focuses on policy and community strategies.

  • This is the methodology we use to learn about the issues affecting our community, and how we have much more in common than we think. We research, we create a plan, and act.

  • We are part of ARCHR (Asheville Regional Coalition for Home Repair) program, where we assist and support families with their repair needs. We want families to live in safe and dignified homes, so that they can stay in their neighborhoods. Call (828) 276-3544 for more information.

Cooperative Development and Lending

Our cooperative development work is centered around the belief that communities have the wisdom and experience needed to create powerful collective solutions to address the structural barriers that we face, and that cooperative development is an important part of creating community power and equity.

PODER Emma provides technical assistance, accompaniment, and lending for the development and sustainability of worker-owned businesses, resident-owned mobile home parks, and community-based real estate investment cooperatives.

  • Our lending is done as a member of Seed Commons, a national community wealth cooperative. Our loan fund has invested over $2,305,000 in community-owned cooperative assets in our neighborhood.

  • There are four cooperatives in our network that engage in peer learning in areas including open book management, coaching supervision, and policy development. 

    These cooperatives are:

  • There are four cooperatives in our network that steward a total of 43 permanently affordable housing units.

  • We own two commercial properties that provide office space to small businesses, and community organizations, as well as a community park.