The Haiti Development Initiative is a project of the Institute for Urban Initiatives at Fuller Theological Seminary under the leadership of consultant Claude Alexandre who is an accomplished executive with years of local, national, and international experience in community and economic development.

The Haiti Development Initiative currently includes two projects. One project involves Azusa Pacific University and the Episcopal University of Haiti and the other involves Fuller Theological Seminary and the University of Haiti.

Azusa Pacific University and Episcopal University of Haiti

Mr. Alexandre successfully initiated a memorandum of understanding between Azusa Pacific University and the Episcopal University of Haiti that will offer a Master of Arts in Transformational Urban Leadership (MATUL). This is an entirely field-based program to enter the reality of life in a slum community, training a new generation of urban-poor leaders to organize local residents in initiatives that are designed to instill hope, mend families, foster educational opportunities, create jobs, improve sanitation and health care, and promote sound planning policies. The program, which will be administered at the Episcopal University of Haiti, has been approved by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

Fuller Theological Seminary and University of Haiti

Mr. Alexandre successfully initiated a letter of intent between Fuller Theological Seminary School of Psychology and the Faculty of Human Sciences at the State University of Haiti to create a Center for Research and Psychosocial Interventions that will further support the psycho-social needs of the Haitian community as a result of the recent earthquake and other recent physical disasters.

Past Projects

As an Episcopalian, Claude Alexandre has served as a consultant for several Episcopal institutions within the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and as a Haitian he has served several Haitian institutions in Haiti and the United States including the Episcopal University in Haiti

Episcopal Institutions

Consulting for Episcopal institutions included

• working with regulators, funders, and members for the capital formation of the Episcopal Community Federal Credit Union of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles;
• working with the Episcopal Housing Alliance and Economic Development to develop Mama’s Hot Tamales Café which is a well-known job training restaurant in Central Los Angeles;
• designing and coordinating “transformational journeys” for local Episcopal and other denominational congregations that introduce congregational members to various business, educational, religious, and social communities and institutions in Haiti.

Haitian Institutions

Consulting for Haitian institutions included

• serving as a board member for Fonkoze which is Haiti’s Alternative Bank for the Organized Poor and the largest micro-finance institution offering a full range of financial services to the rural-based poor in Haiti;
• serving as an adviser to Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s D-Lab which developed a successful micro-enterprise institution that specializes in the production and sale of affordable, clean-burning cooking charcoal made from agricultural waste which has provided vocational training for more than 500 Haitian youth.
  
  

Contact information:
Claude Alexander
135 N. Oakland Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91182
Tel. (310) 500-7187
claude.alexander5@verizon.net

For more information about the Institute for Urban Initiatives please contact:
Sofia Herrera, PhD
Tel. 626.304.3753
Fax 626.744.9009
sofiaherrera@urban-initiatives.org