Will von Geldern is Director of Advocacy and Communications at Ventures and is a People’s Economy Lab Leader Earlier this year, we wrote about our work to build an economy that is truly…
The first federal level bipartisan legislation that highlights worker cooperatives, the Main Street Employee Ownership Act was signed into law in August 2018.
An economic system should provide a social foundation of well-being, and that no one should fall below that baseline. It also sets a ceiling of ecological damage to our planet that we should not cross. Between the two lies the doughnut itself, a safe and just space for all.
Locally based financing helps local economies thrive by keeping dollars flowing in the local economy and maintaining aligned incentives for community value creation. Community Sourced Capital, a crowd-sourced zero-interest lending platform, developed a system of financing loans under $50,000 for neighborhood businesses
Join us as we bring together people who are interested and active in building a community-centered economy. Over coffee and pastries, we will provide an update on the Lab, share with each other our work and interests, and create space to build familiarity, and relationships among people passionate about creating an economy that works for everyone.
Mo! grew up in a community of social justice organizers in Chicago. Her first experience with a People’s Economy came when she moved out of her Mom’s house at age eighteen and into the Stone Soup Cooperative. Living at Stone Soup she witnessed a highly effective, democratically run organization that provided affordable, communal places to live. She began to learn about other cooperative enterprises like worker cooperatives and consumer cooperatives, and has pursued that interest ever since.
To build an economy that is truly inclusive, we have to look at all aspects of economic development. This is particularly true in the Puget Sound region, where the recent influx of wealth has not resulted in economic prosperity for everyone.
On March 29th, we are bringing together a special group of about two dozen people who are interested and active in building a community-centered economy. Over coffee and pastries, we will provide an update on the Lab, share our work and interests, soft launch our website, and create space to build familiarity, and hopefully relationships among people passionate about creating an economy that works for everyone.
A new report shows that people largely don’t understand the economy and believe its a force of nature rather than something we created and can change. But all hope is not lost, tapping into key concerns can like inequality, power, and fulfillment and using promising frames like reprogramming or laying new tracks can open up space for reframing the economy as a human creation that we can make better.
The Local Economy Leaders Lab invites you to join fellow local economy advocates, advisors, civic leaders, and candidates for a briefing and conversation about how we can transform Seattle’s current economy—with its growing and destructive inequities—to one that is more equitable, democratic, diverse, and resilient. For the last nine months, we’ve been drafting a values-based framework and researching compelling economic development initiatives that could improve the lives of thousands.
