Democracy Collaborative co-founder Gar Alperovitz releases his latest book, What Then Must We Do?, and an accompanying film, The Next American Revolution.Monthly Review says Gar presents “the most accurate reading of contemporary economic reality and sets the stage for what could be ‘the next American revolution.’”
A Democracy Collaborative infographic, developed by Communications Associate Benzamin Yi, was featured in a Grassroots Economic Organization article regarding a Cincinnati Union Co-op gathering held last December.
In his guest column for Governing, Ted Howard makes the case for anchor engagement in low-income communities, targeted at measurable outcomes and results. Read the article
Hospitals and universities hold a lot of sway in communities.They spend more than $1 trillion a year and employ 8 percent of the country’s labor force. But sometimes the success of so-called “eds and meds” can have an undesired effect: Gentrification and subsequent displacement.
The Anchor Dashboard — a new 40-page paper and not, sadly, an interactive dashboard with fun renderings — is trying to change that. Courtesy of the Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland, the paper identifies 12 areas where anchor institutions can be more effective at the neighborhood level, from business incubation to local hiring.
“If you don’t do this work right, it can lead to the kind of gentrification that can blow a community apart,” said Ted Howard, executive director of the Democracy Collaborative. [...]
Universities need better ways to measure their impact on surrounding communities, according to a new report.
“The Anchor Dashboard: Aligning Institutional Practice to Meet Low-Income Community Needs,” released on Tuesday by the Democracy Collaborative, a research center at the University of Maryland at College Park, seeks to provide the basis for such a methodology in the form of a broad set of goals for communities and indicators of progress toward those goals.
The report’s “dashboard” consists of 12 desired societal outcomes that “anchor” institutions like universities can work toward, including affordable housing, educated young people, and a healthy environment. The report also offers specific ways to measure the progress being made toward each goal. For example, the amount of money an anchor institution spends on helping local residents file their income taxes can serve as an indicator for the goal of financially secure households.
Universities need better ways to measure their impact on surrounding communities, according to a new report.
“The Anchor Dashboard: Aligning Institutional Practice to Meet Low-Income Community Needs,” released on Tuesday by the Democracy Collaborative, a research center at the University of Maryland at College Park, seeks to provide the basis for such a methodology in the form of a broad set of goals for communities and indicators of progress toward those goals.
The report’s “dashboard” consists of 12 desired societal outcomes that “anchor” institutions like universities can work toward, including affordable housing, educated young people, and a healthy environment. The report also offers specific ways to measure the progress being made toward each goal. For example, the amount of money an anchor institution spends on helping local residents file their income taxes can serve as an indicator for the goal of financially secure households. [...]
Senior 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.
Democracy Collaborative co-founder Gar Alperovitz joined BALLE co-founder Michael Shuman in a conversation on how to build sustainable communities through inclusive local economic development.
In an Al Jazeera article Democracy Collaborative co-founder Gar Alperovitz presents a critical perspective of Thomas Piketty’s best-selling book Capital in the Twenty-First Century— emphasizing how democratizing ownership of capital can address the vast wealth inequalities that Piketty so powerfully documents.
