Now in it's fourth year, this Lab is part of a planned multi-year Northwest Area Foundation initiative, the Native Employee-Owned Development Pilot Project. In the Learning/Action Lab participants and Democracy Collaborative project staff work as co-learners, working to shape strategies to build community wealth. While the aim of the Lab is learning, the larger aim of the five-year project is to help participants increase their capacity to build and retain wealth in their communities by fostering locally owned business and a supportive ecosystem that supports locally thriving, sustainable, and equitable enterprise development.
The first year of the Lab included four gatherings, each in a different city, featuring site visits to projects that exemplify the Community Wealth Building approach – such as an employee-owned cleaning company owned by low-income immigrant women; an employee-owned solar company; an employee-owned cooperative running a commercial laundry; an employee-owned urban agriculture enterprise, and many others. The first year ran through June 2014 with gatherings in Oakland, CA in August 2013; Denver, CO in November 2013; Cleveland, OH in February 2014; and Winnipeg, Manitoba in May 2014.
In year two, participants gathered twice - in Portland, OR and on the Pine Ridge reservation - to visit and learn from each other's organizations, while delving more intensively into their projects with the help of their coaches and peers. In between gatherings, participants have structured opportunities to work with each other, talk with coaches, attend webinars, and do useful preparatory work. The Lab is now in its third year.
Aims and Visions for the Action/Learning Lab
The aim here is to help outline a shared vision of where we hope to go and how we plan to get there, in the belief that this clarity can help us together work toward common goals.
Purpose:
To work collaboratively to build wealth in Native communities using Community Wealth Building principles and tools.
Definition of Community Wealth Building:
Creating local economic prosperity through the democratization of wealth and ownership.
Vision:
A successful group of employee-owned Native American enterprises takes shape across the Northwest, supported by appropriate technical and financial resources, as part of a community wealth-building network, whose principles and models can be replicated and taken to scale in Indian Country. The end result is increased prosperity for Native American communities, empowered to control their own economic fate.
Objectives of the Learning/Action Lab, Year One:
Now in it's fourth year, this Lab is part of a planned multi-year Northwest Area Foundation initiative, the Native Employee-Owned Development Pilot Project. In the Learning/Action Lab participants and Democracy Collaborative project staff work as co-learners, working to shape strategies to build community wealth. While the aim of the Lab is learning, the larger aim of the five-year project is to help participants increase their capacity to build and retain wealth in their communities by fostering locally owned business and a supportive ecosystem that supports locally thriving, sustainable, and equitable enterprise development.
The first year of the Lab included four gatherings, each in a different city, featuring site visits to projects that exemplify the Community Wealth Building approach – such as an employee-owned cleaning company owned by low-income immigrant women; an employee-owned solar company; an employee-owned cooperative running a commercial laundry; an employee-owned urban agriculture enterprise, and many others. The first year ran through June 2014 with gatherings in Oakland, CA in August 2013; Denver, CO in November 2013; Cleveland, OH in February 2014; and Winnipeg, Manitoba in May 2014.
In year two, participants gathered twice - in Portland, OR and on the Pine Ridge reservation - to visit and learn from each other's organizations, while delving more intensively into their projects with the help of their coaches and peers. In between gatherings, participants have structured opportunities to work with each other, talk with coaches, attend webinars, and do useful preparatory work. The Lab is now in its third year.
Aims and Visions for the Action/Learning Lab
The aim here is to help outline a shared vision of where we hope to go and how we plan to get there, in the belief that this clarity can help us together work toward common goals.
Purpose:
To work collaboratively to build wealth in Native communities using Community Wealth Building principles and tools.
Definition of Community Wealth Building:
Creating local economic prosperity through the democratization of wealth and ownership.
Vision:
A successful group of employee-owned Native American enterprises takes shape across the Northwest, supported by appropriate technical and financial resources, as part of a community wealth-building network, whose principles and models can be replicated and taken to scale in Indian Country. The end result is increased prosperity for Native American communities, empowered to control their own economic fate.
Objectives of the Learning/Action Lab, Year One:
- Help participants grasp the Community Wealth Building framework and understand how it might best apply to their community.
- Help people become empowered with relevant, useful tools and skills.
- Introduce participants to a valuable network of leaders, both within the Native development community and the broader field of Community Wealth Building.
- Position participants to pursue enterprise development in Year Two of the Native Employee-Owned Development Pilot Project.