Robert Costanza , Gar Alperovitz, Herman E. Daly, Joshua Farley, Carol Franco, Tim Jackson, Ida Kubiszewski, Juliet Schor and Peter Victor
Bob Costanza and his coauthors, including Gar Alperovitz, aim to situate our material economy within a larger ecological framework, arguing for system changes including greater equitable distribution of capital and broad public control of the money supply.
Published by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the Low Income Investment Fund, Investing in What Works for America’s Communities is a collection of essays highlighting promising anti-poverty strategies in communities across our nation.
Launched by the Post Carbon Institute, Resilience.org is an interactive, community-based tool that seeks to act as a clearinghouse for the best 'resilience' building ideas and models that are helping move the world toward a more equitable and sustainable future. Serving as the new face for the current energybulletin.net, this new website will offer daily content from more than 50 contributors; an interactive map of local organizations and community projects; and a resource section with best practice models, tools for practitioners, and community ideas
Social Venture Partners Rhode Island (SVPRI) offers a comprehensive support system for social innovators to start, advance, and sustain financial capital to develop organizations that improve Providence and its surrounding neighborhoods.The coalition provides leverage funding, intellectual capital, and consulting for businesses, nonprofits, and governmental sectors that are actively creating jobs for hard to employ individuals and assisting social services.They provide a wide-array of programs including: Change Accelerator, an eight week mentor based social venture training program, Social Enterprise Rhode Island, a community-building program that has resulted in 50 new ventures, and Buy with Heart, its newest initiative, a social enterprise consumer awareness campaign that encourages the consumption of social enterprise products and services.
Grow Smart Rhode Island is a network of citizens, business leaders, university administrators, and elected officials working together to revitalize urban and town centers, increase affordable housing options, expand the development of public transportation, and revitalize the urban agricultural sector.One project of the group is the Land Use Training Collaborative, which has delivered more than 30 different workshops to more than 2,600 attendees in the past ten years on planning, design, and financial strategies for smart growth and sustainable community development.
The Genesis Center was original established in 1892 to assist refugees from Southeast Asia who were settling into Providence’s West End neighborhoods.Today the Center is a multi-facet organization offering a wide ranges of services to immigrants, refugees, and families with low-income.Each year the center offers over 600 individuals adult education and workforce development programs, while providing childcare to more than 70 small children.With a staff from over 25 different nations, representing ten different languages, the Center has assisted over 7,500 individuals from over 26 nations receive occupation, job, and skills training so they can better support themselves and their families.The Center is able to expand its services, including its workforce development center to include culinary skills and healthcare training, as a result of a $95,000 grant from the Champlin Foundations and a $20,000 community development grant from the City of Providence.
Referencing a variety of studies, this Institute for Local Self-Reliance article argues that residents in areas with a high concentration of small, locally owned business are healthier and more politically engaged than those living in communities dominated by a few big firms. Local ownership increases social capital through community improvement especially in infrastructure, self-sustainability, and social ties. The article calls for grassroots efforts to overhaul giant retailers like Wal-Mart and Target and improve distressed neighborhoods through local ownership.
How thousands of co-ops, worker-owned businesses, land trusts, and municipal enterprises are beginning to democratize the deep substructure of the American economy, with a new introduction by the author, Gar Alperovitz, and a new foreword by James Gustave Speth.
The New Rules Project, a program of the Institute for Local Self Reliance, provides research, analysis, and education about those factors and policies that support economically sustainable communities, local ownership, and local control in order to promote pro-community policies that reverse the dislocating effects of global capital mobility. Read more about New Rules Project...
The Highlander Center provides resources and assistance, including research, education, and workshops to community organizations struggling with a variety of problems, economic and social, throughout Appalachia and the South. Read more about Highlander Center...
The Committee for Economic Development (CED) is a nonpartisan organization that provides business and education leaders with research and policy recommendations on economic and social issues such as budget reform, school reform, and global markets. Read more about Committee for Economic Development...
Founded in 1969, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development is the domestic anti-poverty, social justice program of the U.S. Catholic bishops. The grants, economic development, and education for justice programs of the Campaign, implemented in collaboration with local dioceses, are supported from an annual collection in U.S. Catholic parishes.
The National Neighborhood Coalition seeks to improve communication between national and local community leaders to develop solutions that better address low-income human and neighborhood needs. Read more about National Neighborhood Coalition...
Recognizing the potential for a green economy to also mean stronger, healthier communities, Delta Institute is working to develop the Great Lakes Region into a global leader in green technology, green jobs and green innovation. Read more about Delta Institute...
Wealth Creation in Rural Communities (WCRC), a project coordinated by the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, working in collaboration with Yellow Wood Associates, seeks to better rural communities through a systems approach to development that fosters diverse community forms of local wealth. The project aims to support efforts that link together assets, producers, and consumers in ways that benefit everyone and keep wealth anchored within the community. Read more about Wealth Creation in Rural Communities...
