Intro to CLTs & Core Values
The Southeastern Connecticut Community Land Trust (SE CT CLT) is a member-based organization that works to serve the community. Therefore, all of our members undergo an educational orientation session to better understand the model of community land trusts and how CLTs address those issues in more permanent ways than other affordable housing groups. You can view one of our orientation slideshows below.
The SE CT CLT is also guided by 12 Core Values which help us maintain focus on our mission. You can read our Core Values and the ways we enact them at the end of this page.
Introduction to the SE CT CLT (Slideshow)
Directly below is an introductory slideshow about the Southeastern Connecticut CLT.
Click the grey dots below the image or the grey arrows on either side of the image to view other slides.
SE CT CLT Core Values
| CORE VALUES: | ENACTED BY… |
| 1. Social Justice & Racial Equity | 1a. Striking the balance between the needs of the individual and the health of the community 1b. Creating policies and practices that counter historical inequities 1c. Promoting vibrant cultural diversity |
| 2. Community Wisdom | 2. Building on the work of the founders of the CLT who lived in our community. |
| 3. Collective Ownership | 3. Democratic decision-making and community control. |
| 4. Accountability & Transparency | 4. Sharing responsibility, building local skills, and fostering trust. |
| 5. Sustainability (People, Planet, Property) | 5a. Century Thinking 5b. Development without displacement |
| 6. Fair & equitable access to resources | 6. Preserving affordability of property |
| 7. Alternative economic & physical systems & structures | 7a. Creative problem-solving and flexibility 7b. Continued learning and evaluation |
| 8. Protection of our community | 8. Using best practices and policies as a guide for our work |
| 9. High quality of life | 9. Creating the conditions for our community and its residents to thrive |
| 10. Community & Solidarity | 10. Building personal relationships |
| 11. Civic engagement | 11. Caring about what happens in our community, being problem solvers, preparing CLT members to serve on local commissions and task forces, advocating for a healthy, livable community. |
| 12. Mindful history | 12. Understanding that many of today’s challenges are the result of past discrimination laws and practices that disadvantaged and displaced neighborhoods and communities. |
Homes & Hands: Community Land Trusts in Action
Homes & Hands is a 36-minute documentary about three different communities that started community land trusts for various reasons, and how those CLTs changed the lives of so many individuals and families. Watching this documentary is a requirement for gaining full membership in the SE CT CLT. Check our homepage for announcements of upcoming screenings of the documentary (online and in-person).
SYNOPSIS: It has been over 40 years since leaders of the Southern civil rights movement formed the first community land trust to secure access to land for African-Americans. This equitable and sustainable model of affordable housing and community development has since become a critical tool in preventing rampant foreclosures and land price speculation while stimulating revitalization without gentrification.
Through the personal stories of community activists in Durham, North Carolina, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Burlington, Vermont, audiences are compelled to rethink their assumptions about housing and community development in the United States.
To learn more about Homes & Hands and the people who produced it, please visit their website: New Day Films.
Roots of the Community Land Trust
The National Community Land Trust Network made this 4-part documentary that can be watched in full on YouTube. Here are the first fifteen minutes of it. You can find the rest at their YouTube channel page.