English – Page 50 – Canadian CED Network

Aki Energy Award Congratulations to Aki Energy, a member of CCEDNet Manitoba for receiving the Province of Manitoba’s 2015 Manitoba Excellence in Sustainability Awards!

Aki Energy won the category of Action on Climate Change, Air Quality and Energy efficiency for their Indigenous-led social enterprise that is working with Fisher River Cree Nation, Peguis First Nation, Sagkeeng Cree Nation and Long Plain First Nation to develop community-wide geothermal energy systems and long term employment.

At our 2016 Manitoba Policy Summit, Aki Energy submitted a policy on Community Owned Green Energy that urges the Province of Manitoba and Manitoba Hydro to build upon and scale-up their model by developing a strategy and allocating the necessary resources, to initiate the development of renewable energy on all 63 First Nations in Manitoba within 10 years.

Another noatable CED organization, NorWest Community Food Centre, won the category of Sustainable Community for their work in providing access to healthy and accessible food, food skill development, community gardens and engagement in Northwest Winnipeg.

This is relevant to CCEDNet’s policy work on food security through Creating Jobs and Improving Food Security in Northern and Remote Communities and in the development of Food Policy Councils.

SOURCE: Government of Manitoba

The Canadian Alternative Investment Foundation (CAIF) is pleased to announce their first Call for Letters of Inquiry in 2016.

CAIF builds on CAIC’s (Canadian Alternative Investment Cooperative’s) three decades of experience as a social lender. We recognize that it takes more than capital to strengthen the charitable sector. There is also a need for expertise and capacity building grants to ensure that capital is used for the maximum benefit of the borrower.

Deadline for Submission: Friday, January 15th, 2016.

The foundation will provide grants in the $5,000 to $15,000 range in three granting streams:

Stream I: Project Feasibility Study

This stream provides a preliminary level of support meant to help charitable organizations scope out need and do some analysis around it to better understand the issues and potential solutions.

Stream II: Business Plan Development

Once you have completed the feasibility study and decided that the project is viable and that financing is required the next logical step is a business plan. This will allow your organization to move from the theoretical to the practical in how they will meet their objectives and reach their goals. In order to access a Business Plan Development grant you must demonstrate that you have completed a Feasibility study (financed by CAIF or otherwise).

Stream III: Capacity Building

Grants would be made available to assist in the execution of a project. Grants would be directed towards retaining/hiring Project Management expertise and/or Financial Expertise.

Learn more about CAIF’s Capacity Building/Technical Assistance Grants

Pre-Budget Consultations 2016, Growing Our Economy Together The federal government has released an open invitation for pre-budget submissions from Canadians in advance of the 2016 Federal Budget. The government has not set a date for the finalized budget but it will likely be published before the end of the fiscal year (March 31).

Individuals and organizations alike can submit budget priorities online at any time through the Government of Canada website. Additionally, starting January 11, Finance Minister Bill Morneau will be engaging with Canadians through online town halls on the Facebook page ‘Your Money Matters’ and in-person consultations in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver, and Surrey. You can also ask questions and share your thoughts about the pre-budget consultations on Twitter using the hashtag #PBC16.

Let’s put CED in the federal budget. Submit your recommendations, or draw on the budget proposals the Canadian CED Network submitted before the federal election call last summer.

Submit your recommendations today

A municipal strategy to reduce urban poverty addresses the roots of inequality

Like many major metropolitan areas in the United States, Toronto is experiencing fast-paced growth. Canada’s finance and business capital has more cranes in the sky than New York City—with nearly 50 percent more high-rises undergoing construction than in the big apple. Between 1990 and 2012, the region experienced a doubling of the economy, and significant population growth. By 2013, Toronto had become the fourth largest city in North America and today, almost one fifth of all Canadians live in the metropolitan area.

Amidst such frenzied development and economic growth, however, many have been resigned to the margins:

One in four children and one in five adults live in poverty;
Almost half of Greater Toronto Area workers have temporary, contract, part-time jobs with variable hours, little stability, and no benefits;
Almost one in four college graduates are working low-wage jobs; and
Almost half of all recent immigrants live in poverty.

As Toronto’s population and economy grew, so did levels of income inequality. Over a 25 year period, household income inequality grew 31 percent—more than double than that of the country as a whole. Between 1970 and 2005, the number of low-income neighborhoods grew from 19 to 53 percent, while the number of middle-income neighborhoods decreased from 66 to 29 percent

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Toronto recognizes that it must combat structural inequalities that prevent specific demographics from escaping poverty. Above are two infographics featured in conjunction with Toronto’s report, TO Prosperity: Toronto Poverty Reduction Strategy, a comprehensive endeavor to change the economic paradigm for all Toronto residents.

Despite such grim conditions and trends, the City is working toward solutions. Having reached “consensus that [Toronto] do[es] not want growing inequity, and that a collaborative, community-driven strategy is needed to end poverty,”on November 3, 2015, Toronto’s City Council voted unanimously to adopt “TO Prosperity: Toronto Poverty Reduction Strategy.” The City’s first ever comprehensive anti-poverty plan aims to address some of the most difficult societal issues: rising inequality and the concentration of poverty.

The City intends to become, by 2035, “a city with opportunities for all,” in which “everyone has access to good jobs, adequate income, stable housing, affordable transportation, nutritious food, and supportive services.” To do so, the City will follow a groundbreaking new anti-poverty plan, which provides guidance on how it can meet residents’ immediate basic needs as well as create more permanent pathways to prosperity. The strategy comes after months of planning, with over 100 meetings in stakeholding communities, 10 facilitated dialogues, and hundreds of online surveys to collect suggestions from those who would benefit most. In addition, a network of more than 75 community groups convened a session called “Commitment 2 Community,” in which they outlined their recommendations for the budget allocation in the Strategy’s implementation process, which will take place over the next three years, to ensure not just short-term solutions, but long-term success.

After consulting with experts and community members alike, the City crafted a meticulous plan to reduce poverty that tackles some of its major symptoms, while also getting at the root of the problem. For instance, the City strives first to ensure that all children have the opportunity to thrive, that wages are held to higher standards for all residents, that families have access to healthy food, and that public transit serves those who depend on it most. Meanwhile, the City’s strategy simultaneously echoes the “Community 2 Community” call for systemic solutions. As the report states, “Why expect different results if we continue doing things the same way?”

A principal tenet of the report and implementation strategy is the focus on driving systemic change in tackling inequality. Consequently, in addition to the strategies that tackle the symptoms of poverty, the City is dedicated to shaping its strategies for poverty reduction such that reversing systemic inequality (and the propensity for minorities and women to suffer from poverty more than others) is at the core of all government operations. Their strategy recognizes that the foundations of a new economy rooted in local investment, ownership, and purchasing patterns will be the deciding factor in bringing the City’s vision of “justice, fairness and equity” to fruition. To that end, over the next three years, the City’s specific recommendations that will help reorient the Toronto economy towards community wealth building include:

Design and implement a community benefits program for City purchasing and capital investments;
Design and implement a procurement policy, preferencing local, as well as minority- and women-owned business; and
Connect job seekers, start-up businesses, and worker-owned co-operatives with economic opportunities, through collaborations with local anchor institutions.

Though the initiative is in its early stages, Toronto is poised to become another leading city that is building community wealth. The City acknowledges that “[e]nding poverty needs an accountable and participatory government that recognizes that everyone has a part to play. Residents, community and business partners, labour, and other orders of government will need to devote time, energy, and resources to build a prosperous and inclusive Toronto.”

How will the city accomplish this goal? Toronto joins a wave of North American municipalities from Cleveland, Ohio to Richmond, Virginia, piloting and implementing community wealth building policies and strategic actions, from which it can draw many lessons and tactics to combat inequality on a systemic level. Much research has been completed on opportunities to leverage local anchor spending from place-based institutions (such as University of Toronto and Toronto General Hospital) to connect both local job-seekers and worker-owned cooperatives with economic opportunities. Toronto’s newly developed strategy also aims to funnel resources from private economic development for community benefit, a growing trend in many U.S. cities. It remains to be seen whether the city will fund this $75 million initiative, but with current advocacy by civic leaders, we remain hopeful.

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Toronto’s rapid urban growth presents an opportunity for change. Photo: Creative Commons Public Domain

Originally published on December 14, 2015 by Community-Wealth.org

Michelle Stearn began working at the Democracy Collaborative as a Communications Associate in Fall 2015 after graduating from Georgetown University with a Bachelor’s degree at the School of Foreign Service. Her studies focussed on environmental justice, globalization, and critical theory. She also studied sustainable community development and urban agronomy for a semester in Santiago, Chile, where her Spanish accent became quite distinctive.

Violeta Duncan began working for the Democracy Collaborative as an Associate, Community Wealth Building Research & Strategy in May of 2014. She received her undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis and her master’s degree in urban planning from Columbia University, where she concentrated on participatory planning and local procurement practices in Kenya. Duncan assists in the production of the monthly Community-Wealth.org newsletter and maintains the Community-Wealth.org blog, in addition to supporting feasibility studies and other community wealth building research.

Every year, members of CCEDNet – Manitoba gather to create a pragmatic, wide-ranging and solutions-focused set of public policy resolutions to strengthen their work and address issues related to poverty, social exclusion and fair economies. These policy resolutions address either the basic needs that allow communities to participate in CED activities (such as access to housing and child care), or specific areas of CED activity, such as education and training, social enterprise, or housing co-operatives.

We are proud to present this year’s set of member-endorsed policy resolutions. Passed by our member in November 2015, these policy resolutions will update our policy mandate, and present new opportunities for CCEDNet – Manitoba to engage with our partners in the provincial and municipal governments. Some of the resolutions are updated from the previous years, such as 2016 – 2 Poverty Reduction Plan & Legislation, while others are new policy concepts and areas of work, such as 2016 – 5 Investing in Community Safety, Stability & Prosperity.

In the new year, CCEDNet – Manitoba will work with its membership to develop an action plan for the new policy mandate. We look forward to working with various levels of government and departments to create a policy environment that is conducive to our membership’s work of building fairer and stronger local economies, reducing poverty and homelessness, and creating more sustainable communities.

Click here to view our complete policy package

We at the Canadian CED Network would like to wish you all a very happy holidays and warm wishes for a good start to 2016.

Our offices will be closed from December 25th to January 3rd, inclusive.

We look forward to working with you to strengthen community economies in the New Year!

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Local Investment Toward Employment In 2016, LITE will award Community Economic Development Grants in the month of June. Grant recipients will be notified in May.

LITE funds initiatives that directly create jobs, or leverage new jobs, and that include skill development for inner city residents who are unemployed or underemployed. Individuals participating in these initiatives face multiple barriers to full employment (for example, at-risk youth, single mothers, ex-offenders, etc).

LITE divides their funding between Purchases (mostly of Christmas hamper goods) from inner-city co-ops and social enterprises (about 50%), and Grants to charitable initiatives (about 50%).

Eligibility Requirements:

In order to receive funding from LITE your organization must be:

Based in Winnipeg
A registered charity with a charitable number

LITE’s disbursement criteria ensure that they pursue their mission “to promote community economic development by supporting inner-city initiatives in Winnipeg that build capacity and provide jobs.”

Selection Criteria:

LITE chooses recipients based on the following criteria:

How well the project fits with LITE’s mission statement and the guiding principles of Community Economic Development (CED)
How much the project contributes towards directly creating jobs, leveraging new jobs (such as through funding a coordinator position), or funds job-skill development. What LITE doesn’t fund are things like tools, supplies, and other capital.
How strongly the project creates sustainable and long-term employment.
How well the project addresses multiple barriers to employment.
How sustainable the project would be without LITE funding.

Is your organization seeking funding?

Download a Grant Application form (Deadline: March 11, 2016 – Grants)

Download a Project Budget template (for CED Grant Applications)

Download A Purchase Application form (Deadline: October 12, 2015 – Purchases)

If you are already a LITE partner, do you need to report on previous funding?

Download a GRANT REPORTING form to report on funding received in 2015 (Deadline: March 04, 2016 – Grants).

Download a PURCHASE REPORTING form to report on funding received in 2014 (Deadline: September 14, 2015 – Purchases).

Do you have questions about applying or reporting? If so, please contact LITE.

LITE’s Star Blanket Project

LITE's Star Blanket Project

Every fall, LITE purchases beautiful star blankets from local aboriginal businesses & co-operatives to donate to Winnipeg charities. The goal of this project is to support local businesses while helping non-profit organizations in their fundraising initiatives.

Download a Star Blanket Application form (Deadline: November 6, 2015)

Download a Star Blanket Reporting form (for Blankets received December 2014, Report due July 20, 2015)

Cities offer the scale needed for transformative change — large enough to matter, but small enough to manage. Universities and colleges are also civic actors in their own right. They are “cities within cities,” where the principles of pluralism create communities of diversity, open to the world. The relationship between post-secondary institutions and cities can serve as an engine of social and environmental sustainability. As part of its pursuit of a more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient society, the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation has created RECODE, an initiative dedicated to catalyzing social innovation and entrepreneurship in higher education; and Cities for People, which contributes to more resilient, livable and inclusive cities.

The RECODE / Cities for People Civic Innovation Awards program provides grants to initiatives that position post-secondary institutions as civic actors catalyzing positive change in cities. These grants will support innovative collaborations between post-secondary institutions and community organizations or businesses that strengthen their communities.

This is a call for initiatives, products, processes, or programs that contribute to the knowledge and resources in our post-secondary campuses, community organizations, businesses and local governments. We are looking to challenge and evolve the defining routines, resources, and authority flows in our cities for the greater good.

Up to $100,000 will be awarded in amounts ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 to exemplary initiatives that meet the criteria outlined in either of the two relevant themes.

Apply now for the Civic Innovation Awards

Deadline: Monday, February 29, 2016 at 9:00am EST

There are two themes for the Civic Innovation Awards:

Theme 1. Innovative Citizenship and Service: Enhancing capacity to engage and take action on community and city issues.

Examples include:

Partnerships between post-secondary institutions and municipal governments or agencies that improve civic engagement.
Initiatives that support civic action by students.
Multisectoral collaborations that apply our collective capacity (or civic intelligence – see lexicon) to improve social and economic outcomes for marginalized populations.

Theme 2. Enhancing the Civic Commons: Re-purposing our shared city assets through innovative approaches to increase the social, cultural, economic or educational value of the civic commons.

Examples include:

Initiatives that re-design and re-purpose buildings, grounds and other assets in service to the community.
Participatory planning and budgeting initiatives that involves municipalities, post-secondary institutions and public input.
Technological innovations to make for a more engaging and connected civic commons.

Full information packet: C4P/RECODE Award_EN

Source: Cities for People

Poverty reduction has no silver bullet. Nor should we expect one. The exhausting and overwhelming work of reducing poverty must take a comprehensive, long-term approach that is led by the communities in need. These communities, who struggle against poverty and social exclusion every day, have repeatedly said this work requires more than a simple transfer of money.

Last month, an editorial by the Winnipeg Free Press reflected on a recently published report which highlighted Manitoba’s persistent and disheartening poverty rates (Nov 25, 2015 “Selinger gives poor answer to bad report card on poverty”). The article criticizes the provincial government for “shipping tax dollars to a variety of community groups and organizations,” implying this is a “political goal” and comes at the expense of broader poverty reduction efforts (such as raising minimum wage or increasing social assistance rates). This is a misguided idea that does not appreciate the critical role of locally managed front-line services in poverty reduction.

To be clear, significant poverty reduction will require a substantial increase in social assistance rates, as well as a higher minimum wage. $15.53 per hour is the wage necessary for a fully employed single mother to raise her child at the poverty line. These are the recommendations put forward by the report highlighted in the Winnipeg Free Press editorial, and these recommendations are championed by Make Poverty History Manitoba, along with other community organizations.

The Winnipeg Free Press, for its part, has criticized the provincial government for inadequate social assistance rates (such as the editorial mentioned above), and multiple columns have explored the potential for a guaranteed annual income to replace our exhaustively complicated welfare system (Generosity doesn’t solve poverty, Dec. 17, 2014; An end to the perpetual welfare trap? Aug. 22, 2012).

A central element to poverty is of course a lack of money, and as a member of Make Poverty History Manitoba, the Canadian CED Network – Manitoba is supportive of efforts that will put more money in poor people’s pockets so they have a solid footing to gain the education and skills required for financial independence. However, sometimes advocacy for increased social assistance rates or a guaranteed annual income (mincome) can underestimate the importance of front-line community services. Whether it is adult education opportunities, parenting programs, or job training for people caught up in the justice system, locally adapted services serve an essential role for families struggling under the weight of poverty and social exclusion.

The best way to understand and address poverty in Manitoba is to listen to those who live in poverty, and to those who work with it every day. These ground-level voices have repeatedly told us that overcoming poverty and social exclusion is not just a matter of income.

A history of colonialism and disinvestment has led to systemic challenges that will not disappear with a cheque. Whether trauma, mental illness, addictions, racism, or poor education and employment opportunities, there are more barriers than just money. These interconnected, deep rooted problems require hands-on work, and resolving them is a long, difficult process. But it can be done, and we can do it at the same time as increasing social assistance and raising the minimum wage — if we make it a priority. A blended approach will be the most successful.

Community-based organizations will not single-handedly solve poverty, nor will food banks, the government, or the private sector. But many children and families have overcome the challenges of poverty with the help of community-based services that are reducing barriers and creating opportunities. Each of these instances breaks the vicious cycle of poverty and has lasting ripple effects in our communities.

To its credit, this week the provincial government completed its commitment to increase its rental subsidy program to 75% of median market rent — two years early — which will help both the working poor and families on social assistance. Furthermore, more community based organizations are receiving multi-year, stable funding. Both initiatives have been requests of community organizations for years and are cause for celebration. But our work is hardly finished.

Low-income Manitobans deserve better and more substantial income supports as well as access to the services provided by community-based organizations with long-term, stable funding. It is misguided and irresponsible to suggest funding community-based organizations is merely a political goal, or that it undermines broader public poverty reduction efforts. Rather, all of these efforts should be treated as complementary and essential components to long-lasting poverty reduction work — efforts that are guided by the communities most in need, and the organizations that struggle against poverty day in and day out.

Blog by: Darcy Penner
Darcy Penner is a Social Enterprise Policy & Program Co-ordinator with the Canadian CED Network. He has been working in community economic development since graduating from the University of Winnipeg with a BA (Honours) degree in Politics. Starting at CCEDNet in 2013, his role has seen him work with member-organizations to pursue a broad policy agenda through workshops, presentations, budget submissions, policy papers and community-organizing, while specializing in supportive social enterprise policy and research – including coordinating the Manitoba Social Enterprise Sector Survey and the Manitoba Social Enterprise Strategy being co-created with the Province of Manitoba. Darcy was also a contributing author to the Alternative Municipal Budget for CCEDNet-Manitoba.

Great news: you are now able to submit CED-related events, toolbox resources (e.g. research reports, case studies, books, videos, etc.), blog posts, and jobs directly to the CCEDNet website to be viewed by thousands of of people from across Canada and beyond!

To get started, all you need to do is sign in; then click on “Post Content” under the User Menu at the top of the right column on the website.

When posting, please to follow the guidelines below to submit a tool, event, job or blog.

To date, blog post topics have included:

Personal reflections on the CED sector
Highlights and summaries of events attended
Interviews with CCEDNet members or sector supporters, and
Commentary on recent policy changes or other announcements.

These articles should conclude with the author’s brief biography and photo at the bottom.

Tools should be related to CED or the social economy:

Original documents (preferably PDF)
CED toolbox entries should include:
An image (right-aligned)
Description of the tool
Brief summary of the author or organization that produced the tool
Link to the website where the tool was originally posted
The table of contents should be posted when available

Events should be related to CED or the social economy

For virtual events (webinars, teleconferences), all regional boxes need to be checked on the post.
Event postings should include:
An image (right-aligned)
Start and end date
Event description
Information on how to register
Link to the website where the event was originally posted

Job postings on CCEDNet’s website should include:

Description of the position
Description of the organization
Reasonable deadline date
How to apply
Link to the organization’s website

Serving as mayor provides one with an array of opportunities to demean oneself on a regular basis—funny hats and dunk tanks tend to be involved. However, for me, and for most of the mayors I know, the lowest moments occur in the grandest corporate offices during economic development ‘recruitment’ trips. After schlepping the best and brightest ambassadors from our city to visit the target company, a mayor is given 30 minutes to make their pitch that the company will be happier, more productive, and profitable in their community. A PowerPoint presentation is given focusing on the quality of the schools, the vibrant culture, the ready and able workforce and, of course, how the city is “business friendly.” The mayor wraps up with an impassioned entreaty that a good community could be made great if that company would move their offices to town.

The company’s senior vice president of real estate then offers his thanks and notes that your hometown is indeed a wonderful place, but is deficient in the following ways: access to transportation, high cost of housing, proximity to suppliers, or some combination thereof. He then notes that another city, which happens to possess all of these necessary attributes, was just in last week. They have offered a very attractive package of tax breaks and public investments that this mayor would need to beat in order to stay competitive.

Now that the competition and egos between mayors (who are by definition hypercompetitive) are properly stoked, a bidding war ensues and good economic analysis and public policy quickly fall by the wayside. In the end, the company moves to the community it was probably going to move to anyway, but with a generous combination of tax breaks and subsidies that justify the senior Vice President’s salary.

For a generation, Michael Shuman has been a lonely voice arguing against these kinds of deals. In an attempt to bring reason and thoughtfulness to the politics of economic development, he has focused on commonsense economics. His new book, The Local Economy Solution: How Innovative, Self-Financing “Pollinator” Enterprises can Grow Jobs and Prosperity (Chelsea Green, 2015) reiterates the core arguments of his previous works: first, most businesses in the United States are local. Second, local businesses are engines of growth and much more likely to create jobs than large companies. So, cities and states should stop trying to lure huge corporations from one jurisdiction to another and should instead invest in the local businesses that are likely to stay, create jobs, and support the local economy. Shuman was local before local was cool.

Shuman effectively highlights the madness of the traditional and expensive economic development approach. He starts with Maryland paying the producers of the Netflix series House of Cards USD $26 million to film the show in Annapolis, even though the city is disguised as Washington, DC. The filming creates 5,900 mostly part-time jobs, which means that the state is paying USD $4,400 per position per year in the best-case scenario, because not all the jobs go to Marylanders who are underwriting this bill with their tax dollars.

Maryland looks good in comparison to some of the other jurisdictions highlighted by Shuman. Sarasota, Florida offered a Danish pharmaceutical company USD $137 million in incentives to create a mere 191 jobs— and lost to a county in North Carolina. As Shuman points out, USD $137 million invested in bonds at five percent would generate USD $38,000 annually in perpetuity for every Sarasotian.

These examples are shocking, but it is the aggregate impact that is the most troubling. As governments spend billions to steal businesses from one locality to another, Shuman’s point becomes very clear: “Economic development today is creating almost no jobs whatsoever…[and it] constitute[s] a net drag on the economy.” Thankfully, his solution to invest more locally is gaining traction with policymakers, even as some high profile governors—now Presidential candidates—continue to buy commercials in other states offering relocation services.

Shuman argues that cities should abandon large corporations in favor of investing in local businesses and fueling local economies. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, the city leverages community and cultural events to boost local businesses

Unfortunately, investing locally is easier said than done. Economies have grown more complex and globalized. Is it better to buy a table made in Malaysia from your local furniture store or from an Etsy artisan 500 miles away? How does, or how should, a community support a business that exports its products globally? Should we consider the nearby publicly traded company part of the local economy, or part of theWall Street economy?

Shuman attempts to create a framework for these kinds of decisions through his six “Ps” of local economic development : Planning (understanding opportunities for local businesses to meet local needs); Purchasing (buy local); People (training local entrepreneurs and employees); Partnership (collaborations of local businesses); Purse (mobilizing local capital); and Public Policy (leveling the regulatory playing field for local businesses).

From his years consulting with communities and working with and for BALLE (the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies), Shuman offers some interesting direction for these local efforts: they must be self-sustaining and not reliant on grants and goodwill. This is an important point that he reiterates throughout the book, but it also makes for dispiriting reading: a job creator in Appalachia is creating hundreds of jobs at a cost of just USD $500, only to see his funding run out: a successful local coupon book loses popularity; an innovative government administrator tires of fighting with his Chamber of Commerce and takes a job at a public market.

One must give Shuman credit for pointing out the realities of local economies—they are unique, messy, and reliant on a few key leaders, which is not a good combination when competing against relentless and focused mega-corporations and their lobbyists. However, Shuman offers dozens of potential solutions, such as youth entrepreneurship schools, local debit cards, maker spaces, and coordinated local farmer delivery services. With all of these possible solutions, a community should be able to find a strategy or two that will move the needle.

Small is (or at least has the potential to be) big. Shuman quotes an innovative Melbourne-based developer who argues, “Economic development needs a paradigm shift. It needs to embrace deeper democracy, deeper engagement. It’s not just about economics of money, but cultural economics and human economics. It should be a transformative process, connecting head, heart and hand…we can’t forget the joy and celebration.”

Richard Florida, an economist and best-selling author, has similarly argued that, “For perhaps the first time in human history, the further progress of our economy is inextricably tied up with the further development of our essential humanity.” This is no easy task. Shuman has proven that our current approach is damaging to both our economy and to humanity. With hundreds of cities and local businesses charting their own path and experimenting with how to align capital and community values, perhaps there is some hope for vibrant local economies and maybe even for mayors limiting their public humiliation to silly hats instead of the costly service of corporate greed.

Originally published in The Solutions Journal, Volume 6, Issue 4 (November 2015)

Buy The Local Economy Solution

Ryan Coonerty is a Supervisor for Santa Cruz County in California and a two-time former Mayor of the City of Santa Cruz. He is the cofounder of NextSpace Coworking + Innovation, a lecturer on law and government at UC Santa Cruz, and co-author of The Rise of the Naked Economy – How to Benefit from the Changing Workplace (Macmillan, 2013). He also wrote Etched in Stone – Enduring Words from our National Monuments (National Geographic, 2007). Ryan was selected by the Aspen Institute to be a Rodel Fellow in Public Leadership as one of “the nation’s most promising young elected officials.”