Convening, Recruiting, and Connecting People Who Repair Local Economies
Sometimes a church can do a better job of solving the problem of post-disaster emergency housing than either a city government or a federal agency. That was the situation in Asheville when Grace Covenant Presbyterian stepped in to solve the problem for the hundreds of people who lost their homes–apartments, trailers, or houses –thanks to […]
I had the opportunity to go last week, with Rosa Lee, to the Ostrom workshop at the University of Indiana to explain the post-disaster economy I see sprouting through several initiatives in and around Swannanoa where we live; it was the epicenter of Hurricane Helene. Our neighborhood, which is often called Swannana-nowhere in the Asheville […]
A colleague has created a data set that shows where the relief money in the Asheville bioregion is going to provide relief and restoration from the impact of Hurricane Helene. Thanks to Tiffani Hart, who leads Ashevillerelief.org, we can see that much money from state and federal funds is going to each CDFI for these […]
In the wake of increasingly frequent climate disasters, a promising initiative is taking root in Swannanoa, North Carolina. Drawing inspiration from successful post-Katrina recovery efforts in New Orleans, we’re helping those working to establish a professional Resilience Corps that builds upon the extraordinary efficiency of existing mutual aid networks. The Foundation At the heart of […]
In the wake of increasingly frequent climate disasters, a promising initiative is taking root in Swannanoa, North Carolina. Drawing inspiration from successful post-Katrina recovery efforts in New Orleans, we’re helping those working to establish a professional Resilience Corps that builds upon the extraordinary efficiency of existing mutual aid networks. The Foundation At the heart of […]
In the heart of Asheville’s historic Shiloh neighborhood, a groundbreaking initiative is reimagining how communities can finance and implement climate solutions while building reliable neighborhood-based food security. At the intersection of innovative financing, community empowerment, and environmental justice, this project could create a blueprint for sustainable community development through food systems. It starts with a […]
Post Helene, here in Asheville, we are finding that in doing local, small scale convening around pressing problems like water, electricity, connectivity, and community free food, the work of connecting the dots that we do at Neighborhood Economics is more valuable than ever. Gathering the people making a difference works in a disaster. And we […]
Building an interdependent economy Walking away from the myth of the rugged individual Mapping the capital to create neighborhood scale resilience When we were planning the content for the entrepreneurship ecosystem focused Neighborhood Economics conference set for mid-November in Asheville, we already had set up what we were calling a capital showcase. This was to explain […]
“There is a gap between the sustainable economy and the economy focused on economic justice. They seldom meet.” The core of a Neighborhood Economics conference is highlighting promising and potentially replicable solutions that are working to repair the economy in one neighborhood, solutions could be replicated in other city. At our national conferences, we highlight […]
We’ve got several exciting and intriguing sessions teed-up for our fall conference in Asheville. Rev. Luke Lingle, who worked with three Methodist churches in Asheville as they became vital community centers while maintaining worship spaces, has joined our team. He is going to lead our faith-based sessions looking at how churches create shared and mixed-use […]