Newsletters

Happy New Year and welcome to our January www.Community-Wealth.org newsletter. We start 2015 with the following developments:

• Our most recent report A New Anchor Mission for a New Century was profiled earlier this month in Forbes magazine and the Stanford Social Innovation Review.
• In an Al Jazeera article, Democracy Collaborative Co-founder Gar Alperovitz argues for a guaranteed income to improve the plight of veterans and in a Truthout article Gar explores the challenges of structuring institutions of justice. Gar and the Collaborative are also cited in an article in Dissent magazine describing Reading, Pennsylvania’s rebuild Reading initiative.
• We share the findings of the National Cooperative Business Association's exploratory journey (Democracy Collaborative Research Director Steve Dubb participated in the delegation) to learn about the conversion of state controlled enterprises into worker-owned cooperative in Cuba.
• In December, our Executive Director Ted Howard presented at the Annual Learning Exchange of the Richmond based B-corp and CDFI, Virginia Community Capital. 
• C-W Interview: Ed Whitfield, Fund for Democratic Communities

• The Democracy Collaborative released a new report, A New Anchor Mission for a New Century: Community Foundations Deploying All Resources to Build Community Wealth.
• We launched our Anchor Dashboard Learning Cohort, a group of universities that will work together to measure their impact in communities, and share results, challenges and successes.
• Executive Director Ted Howard discusses the need for a new federal policy strategy to help cities leverage the economic might of their anchor institutions to benefit communities in the Center for American Progress’ TalkPoverty blog
• Journalist Tanvi Misra discusses anchors as a place-based community revitalization strategy in The Atlantic’s CityLab.
• In an openDemocracy article, University of Oxford political theorist Stuart White notes the role that community wealth building can have as a potential solution to widening inequality.
• Fast Company magazine celebrates Thunder Valley Community Economic Development Corporation, a participant in our Learning/Action Lab for Community Wealth Building from the Pine Ridge Reservation.
• Democracy Collaborative Co-founder Gar Alperovitz contributed articles to Truthout & Al Jazeera and attended the Praxis Institute’s Economics of Sustainability Conference & La Montanita Co-op’s annual meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
• C-W Interview:  José Corona, Executive Director of Inner City Advisors (ICA)

This month's new developments include: 

• The Democracy Collaborative released a new report, Policies for Community Wealth Building: Leveraging State and Local Resources. 
• The Washington Post published an article describing Richmond, Virginia’s newly established Office of Community Wealth Building. A New Republic article explored how cooperatives can support a green economy and a Yes! Magazine article focused on how land trusts, worker ownership, and public banking can help reduce inequality.
• Democracy Collaborative co-founder Gar Alperovitz published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times and appears in a joint interview with economic geography scholar David Harvey, conducted by Journalist Laura Flanders of GRITtv.
• New Report Outlines Emerging Best Practices in State & Local Policies to Build Community Wealth
• Federal Commitment to Higher Workforce Standards Reduces Inequality
• Communities Address Racial Inequity through Investment in Local Food Systems
• Healthcare Institutions Invest Locally to Build Sustainable and Healthy Communities
• The Road So Far: Penn Leaders Recount Path to Building an Anchor Mission
• Participatory Budgeting Project
• Impact Investing Policy Collaborative

This month's new developments include: 

• The Democracy Collaborative is pleased to share our latest report, Building Community Wealth: An Action Plan for Northwest Jacksonville
• Democracy Collaborative co-fonder Ted Howard discussed best practice approaches for measuring the impact of anchor institutions in a webinar hosted by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC). He also moderated a plenary panel at CleanMed 2014 on the Cleveland anchor institution framework
• Research Director Steve Dubb’s Leveraging the Power of Local Institutions presentation at the American Independent Business Alliance’s 2014 Go Local, Grow Local conference is also available
• Working with the Northwest Area Foundation and Native American community development leaders from across the northwestern United States, The Democracy Collaborative recently wrapped up the first year of our “Learning/Action Lab for Community Wealth Building”
  
• enior Research Associate Thomas Hanna and Andrew McLeod of Collective Seeds Consulting Cooperative guest edit Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO)’s blog series, Scaling-Up the Cooperative Movement
  
• C-W Interview: Ai Jen Poo
• Guide Outlines Strategies to Sustain Community Assets
• Philanthropic Organizations Seek to Expand Social Impact
• Report Outlines Agenda to Increase Financial Service Access in Communities of Color
• Latino and African American Homeowners Face Continued High Levels of Underwater Mortgages
• National Resource Network
• The Working World
•  Democracy Collaborative co-founder Gar Alperovitz spoke on the keynote panel at the New Economy Coalition’s Commonbound Conference and gave the closing keynote address at the American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Action Plan Outlines Strategy to Builid Community Wealth in Jacksonville, Florida