What is Community Wealth Building?
Democratic ownership
The curriculum walks participants through an examination of the philosophy and practice of cooperation, the meaning of "development" and "entrepreneurship" in their lives, the steps required in starting a cooperative business, and an exploration of two of the most important steps - organizing people into a Steering Committee, and creating a Business Plan. All activities use Popular Education methods, drawing directly on the expertise and insight of participants to guide the learning process...
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- Green Taxi Cooperative: Building an alternative to the corporate "Sharing Economy"
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- Co-ops Gain Ground in Communities of Color
- Featured publication:
- Broad-Based Ownership Models as Tools for Job Creation and Community Development Marjorie Kelly, Steve Dubb and Violeta Duncan
Community development
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- A St. Louis organization goes above and beyond providing homes for communities
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- Community Wealth Building Form: What they are and how to use them at the local level Steve Dubb Academy of Management Perspectives
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- Infographic: The Impact of Community Development Corporations
Community Wealth Interviews
Anchor Institutions
Anchor institutions can play a key role in helping the low-income communities they serve by better aligning their institutional resources—like hiring, purchasing, investment, and volunteer base—with the needs of those of communities. The recommendations in this “playbook,” drawn from research carried out to help Rush University Medical Center (RUMC) align around its Anchor Mission, are being published to help other hospitals and health systems accelerate their own efforts to drive institutional alignment with community needs.
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- Cleveland’s Greater University Circle Initiative: An Anchor-Based Strategy for Change Walter Wright, Kathryn W. Hexter and Nick Downer
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- How Hospitals Can Help Heal Communities Ted Howard and Tyler Norris Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
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- Leveraging Anchor Institutions for Economic Inclusion Chris Schildt and Victor Rubin Sustainable Communities Series
Community finance
Since the group's founding in the mid-1980s, LIIF has provided capital and technical assistance totaling $1.5 billion, which in turn leveraged an additional $6 billion, broadening economic opportunity for 1.7 million people. LIIF's investments helped to create 174,000 units of low income and special needs housing, 243,000 childcare spaces, and 72,000 educational facilities.
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- Community Foundations in Pacific Northwest Expand Impact through Collective Impact Investing
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- Raising Capital from the Community: Alternative Capital Development through Crowdfunding Jessica Leigh
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- Community Foundations Pursue Impact Investments to Build Local Economies Catherine Covington The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Community Wealth Cities
Ecological development
The accelerating transition to renewable energy is great news, but as this article by Democracy Collaborative Communications Director John Duda makes clear, there's a key question we need to be asking:
- Featured publication:
- East Bay Community Choice Energy Seth Baruch and Al Weinrub
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- Community Groups Tackle Racialized Food System Inequality
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- Cooperation Among Cooperatives Rebuilds Equitable Food System
State and local innovation
The city of Rochester, with Mayor Lovely Warren at the helm and supported by partners and allies across New York State and beyond, has hatched a plan to tap into at least that much to help level the economic playing field for Rochester’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods. “It’s about being able to give employees an opportunity to have ownership and to build wealth within their own communities,” says Warren. The plan consists of supporting the creation or growth of cooperatively owned businesses located primarily in the city’s most distressed neighborhoods...
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- State legislatures attacking community wealth building
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- Field Guide: The Future of Health is Local Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) Business Alliance for Local Living Economies
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- Policies for Community Wealth Building: Leveraging State and Local Resources The Democracy Collaborative
Community Wealth Videos
Social enterprise
When you hear the word “investor,” what do you picture?
When I ask most people this question, they describe a white man in a suit (or, if in Silicon Valley, maybe khakis and a button down shirt) in a fancy office spending every work day combing through pitch decks, executive summaries, and due diligence and barking tough questions at terrified entrepreneurs.
- Featured from the directory:
- Fresh Start Catering (DC Central Kitchen)
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- Capturing the Imagination of Future Social Entrepreneurs: A Robust University Based Anchor Institution-led Development Model Sherman Kreiner USFWC Effective Practices Project
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- The Architecture of Enterprise: Redesigning Ownership for a Great Transition Marjorie Kelly The Good Society
Asset strategies
Flexible savings allow families to manage unexpected financial emergencies and ultimately help families build long-term financial security. However, as this new report from the New America Asset Building Program highlights, flexible savings opportunities are limited, prompting many low-income families to take out payday loans or to incur financial penalties for early withdrawals from their tax-preferred accounts. The authors make several recommendations to broaden the offering of financial services and policies that both permit short-term use and help build assets in the long term.
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- How a credit union is increasing access to affordable, responsible financial services
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- Building an Equitable Tax Code: A Primer for Advocates Lewis Brown Jr. and Heather McCulloch
- Featured from the directory:
- Center for Responsible Lending
International inspiration
At the end of 2012, the Cuban government approved a law that permitted for the first time the formation of non-agricultural co-ops.
- Featured blog post:
- Building Community Wealth across the Pond
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- Videos Outline Mondragón Worker Cooperative Model
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- The Worker Co-operative Movements in Italy, Mondragon and France: Context, Success Factors and Lessons Hazel Corcoran and David Wilson