Enterprises featured in the Building Resiliency Through Green Infrastructure report are creating a blueprint for other cities to follow as they work to protect their communities from the effects of climate change.
Hosted by: Green Infrastructure Leadership Exchange, The Summit Foundation, and The Democracy Collaborative
Creating climate resilient cities means more than investing in infrastructure—it means tackling economic and racial inequality that leaves disinvested communities on the frontlines of climate damage. Watch as a panel of practitioners explores how building green stormwater infrastructure (harnessing nature's innate ability to manage runoff) can be a key intervention point for also building community wealth, creating a vibrant economic system where democratic ownership and control creates more equitable outcomes.
Drawing on the work done in the Learning/Action Lab for Community Wealth Building, Stephanie Gutierrez explores how a systemic approach to inclusive local economic development needs a process of active translation to resonate with the traditional values at the core of Native communities.
Founded in 1968, Challenge Workforce Solutions helps people with disabilities or barriers access employment. The nonprofit provides job seekers with training and comprehensive supports, and then connects them to job opportunities at local businesses or within one of its four social enterprises: Challenge Commercial Cleaning, Challenge Contract Staffing, Challenge Imaging (scanning services), and Challenge Contract Production. In 2016, Challenge supported 1,200 people, and its social enterprises generated 56 percent of its total revenue.
Solutions for Change strives to permanently solve homelessness for San Diego County families. To do so, the nonprofit catalyzed Solutions University, a leadership development residential program for homeless families that includes supportive housing, life skill training, workforce development, counseling, health services, and youth-focused programming. To help fund these services while providing training and employment opportunities, Solutions for Change operates social enterprises, including New Solutions Housing (multifamily property management and maintenance services), New Solutions Real Estate Development (housing construction), and Solutions Farms (an aquaponics farm growing sustainable produce). Since its establishment in 1999, the nonprofit has helped 850 families transition out of homelessness.
Rise Up Industries helps reduce gang involvement by providing integrated gang prevention, gang intervention, and post-detention reentry programs. Modeled after Los Angeles’ Homeboy Industries, Rise Up Industries provides high-risk, formerly gang-involved individuals with a continuum of free services and programs, including job training through its social enterprises. Enterprises include a venture that roasts and sells fair-traded coffee, a screen printing and embroidery business, and a machine shop.
Mission Edge provides San Diego nonprofit and social enterprises with the resources and knowledge needed to make their business processes easier and maximize their social impact. Services provided include accounting and other finance-related supports, HR administration and support, leadership development, and fiscal sponsorship. Through its Social Enterprise Accelerator & Impact Lab (SAIL), Mission Edge also offers a 14-week program designed to help area nonprofits and purpose-driven businesses operate more effectively and efficiently, and develop sustainable business models based on earned revenue. Since its establishment in 2012, Mission Edge has supported 175 groups.
Guided by a mission to break the cycles of food waste, hunger, and poverty, Kitchens for Good rescues surplus and cosmetically imperfect food from wholesalers and farmers and runs a culinary apprenticeship initiative that uses these ingredients to create nutritious meals for food-insecure families. The program is credited with creating 50,000 nutritious meals and training 90 people annually. To generate revenue to support the nonprofit’s job training program, students also provide catering and contract meal services, and produce and sell savory spreads. Nearly 70 percent of the nonprofit’s budget is generated through these entrepreneurial activities.
Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation (TVCDC) is a Lakota led non-profit based in the Thunder Valley community of the Porcupine District on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which celebrated its 10year anniversary in 2017. For the last five years, TVCDC has participated in and co-created the Learning/Action Lab for Community Wealth Building, alongside The Democracy Collaborative, the Northwest Area Foundation and four other Native American community-based organizations, to develop and work through strategies that build and root wealth locally for the benefit of their community. Read more about Creating an Ecosystem of Opportunity on Pine Ridge...
