Get excited. The Chalmers Center has gone local. The Center a training ground for economic development based at Covenant College, is partnering with local churches to bring its brand of economic development to Chattanooga.

In the past, up to 80% of the Chalmers Center’s work has been internationally focused, providing economic development curricula for missionaries and pastors in over 60 countries.

But as of Sept. 2010, with the hiring of Jerilyn Sanders as program director of the local initiative, the Chalmers Center has launched a new program called Asset-Driven Development of Chattanooga (ADDC) that will make its valuable training and ministry models available to the Chattanooga area.

North Shore Presbyterian Church, New City Presbyterian Fellowship, and Evensong Contemporary Anglican Church, among others, have expressed interest in the economic development training that the new ADDC program provides.

With such churches eager to learn strategic poverty alleviation within their own communities, the Chalmers Center wants to provide bible-based curricula and ongoing technical advice for them.

Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett’s book, When Helping Hurts, is a foundation to the new curricula and gives guidance about what to do and what not to do when helping the poor. The principles in the curricula are valuable for church members who are seeking to remedy the problem of poverty in their communities.

Tom LePage, Director of Operations at the Chalmers Center, describes the role and value of the training plan: “The curricula and ministry models will help the church members connect their mission-hearted understanding of poverty alleviation to sound, technical head knowledge that will empower their desire to effectively help the poor.”