Registration Information for Neighborhood Economics

Information Table of Contents:

If you are ready to register, click here:

The focus areas for these eight Design Labs are:


Catalytic Capital

  • Led by Tim Freundlich, DeAmon Harges and Lindsay Smalling
  • Innovating and popularizing deep impact capital. Gap-filling, patient and inclusive for people and planet. A donor advised fund as a public utility for a local community will be among the innovations showcased., 

Rescuing Mainstreet with Ownership

  • Led by Elias Crim and Sara B. Stern 
  • Directing the flow of Boomer businesses for sale towards either employee or BIPOC ownership.

Bridging the Racial Wealth Gap

  • Led by Stephanie Swepson Twitty
  • Cultivating social infrastructure and innovative financial tools to create intergenerational wealth and address economic racial disparities.

Community Equity Investments and Inclusive Real Estate Ownership

  • Led by Lyneir Richardson and Coté Soerens
  • Creating the structures for everyday people to invest in their neighborhoods and repel rapacious developers.

Local Economic Policy

  • Led by Andy Beck and Eric Sapp
  • Changing the rules in your town or state to address systemic injustice.

Faith on Main Street

  • Led by Patrick Duggan and Dave Kresta
  • Realizing the potential of congregations within local economies.

Church Assets in Transition

  • Led by Chris Elisara and Donna Schaper
  • Shifting imagination and practice from property management to community development.

Aligning Endowments with Mission

  • Led by Felipe Witchger, Elizabeth Garlow and Brendan O’Sullivan Hale
  • Helping communities of faith and other non-profits see achievable ways to coordinate their investments with their mission goals.

Martin University, Indianapolis , IN
May 3-6, 2022 


Event begins with a welcome party on Tuesday night, May 3,
and continues through lunch on Friday, May 6. 

 

Tentative Schedule

Tuesday, May 3

  • Opening Party, 6:30

Wednesday, May 4

  • Registration Opens – 9:00
  • Opening Plenary Sessions – 9:30
  • Lunch – 11:30
  • Design Lab Working Groups – 1:00
  • Evening Party – 6:00
  • Dine Around Groups 7:30

Thursday, May 5

  • Design Lab Working Groups – 9:00
  • Lunch and Neighborhood Tours – 11:00
  • Design Lab Working Groups -2:00
  • Neighborhood Bash – 6:30

Friday, May 6

  • Final Planning for Closing Presentations – 9:00
  • Closing Session – 10:00
  • Lunch – 12:00
Hotel Information
A special rate has been secured at Home2 Suites in downtown Indianapolis. Click here for the room block discount.
Contribute to this mission (Ticket Pricing)
Labor, finance, emotional labor

We are starting the work of building new local economies by trying to create a fairer, hyper-local economy within the event itself. I suspect that we’ve all looked at a sliding scale and wondered what is the appropriate amount for us to pay or even how little we can pay. While what we are doing sounds similar to sliding scale, we are working to find ways to create a level playing field so that nobody’s participation will be distracted or even limited because of finances. We even hope to raise funds for child care or lost wages where needed. We are doing this with a three-pronged approach.

First of all, we have a generous partner in this event: Trinity Church Wall Street is providing one-third of the needed funding, infusing catalytic capital to make sure this event thrives. For the second third, we are working with a variety of local and national organizations that are deeply engaged in the work in each of these eight areas. Finally, we are asking for the participants to fund the remaining third with registration fees.

When we started SOCAP (the original founders and producers of SOCAP are also producing this event), we used a very traditional event ticket pricing model, early bird specials in which the first people to sign up were given the very best prices. Essentially you had to be an insider with extra funds in your pocket to buy early and get the discount. People who were late to the game paid full price. 

As we think about it, we see that our model highlighted so much of what is wrong in our economy. We want to do this event in a different way. When you accept this invitation, you will see that we are asking for you to indicate what you CAN pay. And if that is nothing at all, that is okay. We are also trying to raise funds to help participants for whom costs are prohibitive to pay for flights and lodging and hopefully even funding as best we can for lost wages.

We need EVERYONE, regardless of – and perhaps even BECAUSE of – their (in)ability to pay to be fully engaged in this work, and we hope that those of you who CAN afford to pay more, or whose organizations can pay more, will do so. We will give you a report on how this new economic model for determining ticket prices has worked during the event.

We are building Neighborhood Economics to be a year-round utility for the public good that is going to travel the nation with attendees also supporting the work through paying a fair share of the cost of the event. In old-fashioned community terms, this might be thought of as a barn-raising, or for us today, maybe a glimpse of a new economy where we attempt to model at this event what we are trying to build in our neighborhoods, an equitable way of sharing the labor – physical, financial and emotional – among all of us as we have ability. 

We are asking those who can contribute to this work financially to strongly consider selecting the top dollar amount we suggest as $3000.

You will have the opportunity to put in whatever amount you believe is right for your situation, but there are also some suggested levels from which you can choose:

  • If you are coming from an organization that has financial means, such as a foundation, bank, or large, well-funded congregation, or if you are an individual with personal means, please choose to pay the full price.
  • If your organization can actually pay more, please reach out to discuss the potential to support this work with scholarships for people who cannot pay.
  • If you are coming from an organization that has similar strong financial means, such as a foundation, bank, or large, well-funded congregation, or if you are an individual with personal means, but your budget for this event is constrained, you may also opt to pay $2000. 
  • If you are coming from an organization that has financial means, but this is a new kind of endeavor for your organization and you are being sent as an experiment, or if you are wondering how deep your organization can afford to go, then feel free to select the $1500 option.
  • If you are an individual coming from a non-profit that is not so well-funded, or if you are coming as an individual and you do not have deep pockets, please try to pay $1000 for your ticket. 
  • If you are an individual who is working in this space as someone who benefits from the results of this work, we suggest that you pay $500 for your ticket.
  • For those who cannot afford any of these options, full financial support for tickets is available, as well. If you would like to apply for this funding, please select that option at the end of the registration form, and you will be directed to the financial assistance section. You will receive notification about your financial assistance application within a week of applying.
Advance Work

Each Design Lab will have at least one, 2-3 hour Zoom call during March and April. We are hoping that all participants will be able to attend the majority of the calls for their Lab.

We will send you a link to a form to give us a brief bio and photo of yourself. We will also be asking you about a dozen questions and asking for your thoughts about what opportunities you see, especially for the Design Labs you are NOT participating in. We want to start from the very beginning, not just working in our own areas, but cross pollinating in every way we can.

Covid Safeguards

We intend for this to be a fully in-person event with very strong Covid safeguards. That is one of the reasons we are limiting the number of people we are inviting, but the other is that we really want to dig deep together and come forward at the end of the event with strong, new ideas of changes, innovations, and budding partnerships that can make a difference. 

We DO have a hybrid model in our back pocket if it becomes necessary to pivot, but the strong hope is to meet with 100% of the Designers present at Martin University. We will ask everyone to test prior to attending and for those who are not vaccinated to mask when indoors at all times.

So, Please join us!

We are so hopeful you will say an enthusiastic YES! to this invitation. Please let us know if we can be of any assistance to you in clarifying what we are asking or in any other way. We hope to see you in Indianapolis.