Independently owned and operated businesses are the lifeblood of our local economies. With 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day in the United States, a significant portion of privately-owned businesses will change hands or permanently close, putting 1 in 6 jobs at risk. Our local business landscape is about to go through a dramatic shift. The […]
We’re honored that, for the second year in a row, Capital Impact Partners selected our organization for this prestigious award! The following is reprinted from Capital Impact Partners’ website. Arlington, VA (May 3, 2017) – Capital Impact Partners announced today that it has awarded grants totaling $50,000 to Project Equity and the Food Co-op Initiative, co-winners of its
Project Equity receives the 2017 Coop Innovation Award Read More »
In July of 2016, our co-founder, Alison Lingane, was honored to be invited, along with U.S. credit union executives and field builders, to visit Mondragon, one of the world’s largest federations of cooperatives, in the Basque region of Spain. The trip was spearheaded by the National Cooperative Bank and organized by Michael Peck of 1worker1vote.org. Back in the U.S. in August,
In June of 2016 we had the honor of facilitating a Think Tank Day in Morganton, NC, hosted by Western Piedmont Community College and Molly Hemstreet, founder of Opportunity Threads. The goal of this event was to initiate a plan and map the regional assets that could help create a corridor of colleges working together
The BALLE Local Economy Fellows are leaders with fierce love for their communities – a love that they’re each putting to work in ways that bring equity, opportunity, capital, and support to small local businesses and the diverse populations in every community they serve. They represent some of the most innovative local economic and community development
The Cooperative Growth Ecosystem framework encourages diverse stakeholders in the field of community economic development to invest in inclusive economic development by fostering cooperatively owned enterprises within a broader entrepreneurial “ecosystem.”
TS Designs, in Burlington NC, reinvented itself in the 1990s, from a T-shirt manufacturer printing for big apparel brands, to an apparel printing company that brings its own T-shirts to market with a transparent and local supply chain and cutting edge eco-friendly screen-printing. North Carolina’s first Certified B Corporation, TS Designs partners with local environmentally-
In October of 2016, we co-hosted a national convening—a high energy day of learning and action planning around a new Cooperative Growth Ecosystem framework that we created with the Democracy at Work Institute (DAWI). The event brought nearly 60 participants from across the Bay Area, New York, Boston, Madison WI and Western North Carolina regions,
