Creative Placemaking programs

Creative Placemaking programs:

Little Africa Annual Festival and African Parade

African Economic Development Solutions (AEDS) hold Little Africa festival annually the first week of August to celebrate the diversity, resilience, hard work, as well as beauty of African art and culture. AEDS is pioneering in community building using art and culture that weave community together We use art and culture as a catalyst for economic development strategy. The festival brings thousands of visitors to Little African Cultural Business District that helps
businesses gain new customer base and increase their revenue. You can visit us on Facebook: www.littleafricafest.com

Through our African Parade, AEDS aims to strengthen the social fabric of African immigrants, help in building more connected communities, and eliminate social isolation. Through Little African Annual Festival and African Parade, AEDS aims to weave African immigrants and other communities together to strengthen and build vibrant communities.

Creative-1
Little Africa Fest 2018 Hamline Park 58 (d32284eb-68c1-46c3-944a-2f21fa8de788)
Creative-2

Little Africa Cultural Business District Approach of Economic Revitalization

  • Organization- we establish cooperation among African immigrant businesses, neighborhood, public and private sectors. Little Africa approach is to revitalize corridor wide effort and connect to other locations where African immigrants are highly concentrated and building the capacity of partner African organizations.
  • Promotion: we market the district ‘s cultural asset to customers, visitors, and new businesses, as well as the region. Little Africa Plaza incubate healthy ethnic grocery store, small retails, and African museum that showcase African art and culture that attract more visitors to the corridor.
  • Design-Facade improvement program enhance the physical appearance of the district, improving buildings, signage, and window displays.
  • Economic restructuring- strengthening district’s economy through recruiting more businesses to the district while providing technical assistance to existing businesses.