On the road with Community Wealth in the USA
Our work on Community Wealth Building at TDC involves partnerships, relationship, and network building with people and organizations across the USA and globally. In the next month, we will be visiting and working with a range of organizations, cities, and localities. This activity speaks to the expansion of the CWB movement across the United States as we service some of the growing interest in and action on CWB with visits to Los Angeles, Chicago and Meadville, PA.
In Los Angeles we will be delivering a tailored CWB training and workshop with the United Way of Greater Los Angeles geared toward their staff and partners. These events will be an opportunity to share some of our knowledge about the concept and practice of CWB, learn more about the activities of UW, and explore how CWB could play an even greater part of their work in LA and across their wider US and global network. In particular, these sessions will be focusing on how CWB can address the root causes of poverty and inequality so as to minimize the downstream negative consequences of them.
After that, we will be in Chicago for the Neighbor Works America Training Institute (NTI) – an in person 5 day event, designed to deliver a range of focused training for community-serving professionals. We are delighted and privileged that for the first time at the NTI, we will be delivering a full two-day module on CWB that will both explain the history and concept of CWB, but also delve into strategy and some of the practicalities of delivering it. As part of that module there will be a site visit to Daley College where we will delve into the work of the college and Revolution Institute, who have forged an advanced manufacturing training center and cooperative development partnership. This is part of the City of Chicago’s wider Community Wealth Building Initiative lead by the Office for Equity and Racial Justice. We also have a range of other meetings in Chicago, picking up on our work on Community Wealth Building in Chicago and exploring the next phases of that work as reported in our New Era for Community Wealth Building report.
After a brief visit to Cleveland, where early experiments in CWB connecting cooperative development with local anchor institution procurement began with the Evergreen Cooperatives, We head to Meadville, PA. In Meadville, where we worked to help them develop a CWB plan, we have meetings including local and regional officials and will be delivering the kick off event in a multi-month training series on CWB While Meadville is a small place, there are many towns across America similar to Meadville and if CWB can help them to reclaim their local economy, it can be useful for towns all across the country.
To continue to grow the CWB movement and rewire the economic system, we need to build alliances and networks that develop practice using TDC’s Action Planning model and shift policy and legislation. These events over the next part are the beginning of fomenting these relationships and building those networks!
Sarah McKinley is the Director of Community Wealth Building Programs
Neil McInroy is the Global Lead for Community Wealth Building.