Building Bridges
For a Just, Equitable & Sustainable Economy in the
Tompkins County Region
November 15 and 16, 2011
Goal:
• A Socially Just and Sustainable
Local Economy in the Tompkins
County Region
A Socially Just and Sustainable Local
Economy in the Tompkins County Region
• Creating and maintaining a community and
economy that works for everyone and
preserves our physical environment
• Reducing our carbon footprint by 20% by
2020.
– (that gives us 8 years)
• Ensuring full economic human rights to
everyone who lives or works in the county.
– Full economic and civic participation of
economically marginalized communities
and individuals.
Ensuring full economic rights and
economic participation of marginalized
communities and individuals means:
• Eliminating structural poverty
• Eliminating structural racism
(and all of the other “isms”) that
have plagued our economic and
social relationships
This means:
Everyone who lives here has:
• enough good food to eat
• a safe place to live with heat in the
winter
• access to affordable health care
Everyone who works here is making a
livable wage
People in economically marginalized
communities own things
(i.e. businesses and homes).
Goals for the next two days:
• When we leave here tomorrow we will
have:
– A shared vision of what this looks like, a
shared analysis of our situation and a
narrative that we can share with others
– A shared set of strategies for achieving our
vision that all (or most of us) believe have
a good chance of working
– Stronger relationships and a shared
commitment to take the specific actions
that will make those strategies successful
Personal Introductions
Discussion Questions
• Name
• Affiliation
– (areas of interest/organization/role)
• What inspired you to be here?
• What you hope to gain personally and
for your community?
Working Agreements
• What will you need from each other and
from facilitators in order to participate fully?
Working Agreements
• Participate fully
• Listen for understanding
• Share the “air” time:
– Don’t speak twice until
others have spoken once
– Avoid repetition
• Check Assumptions/Ask
for clarification
• Take some risks
• Support risk takers
• Honor privacy and
confidentiality
• Stay focused
• Take care of yourself
• High trust/low fear
climate
• Start and end on time
Waking Up—Saying “No!
Human Rights/Economic Rights Stories
Discussion questions:
• Are human and economic rights fully realized
and protected here in Tompkins County?
• What are some examples of economic
injustice that you have either experienced
yourself, or witnessed here in Tompkins
County?
• How do these examples affect you personally
(feelings, assumptions, behaviors)
• What would you like to see instead?
What’s Our Vision?Saying “Yes!
Vision of a just and sustainable local
economy in Tompkins County
• What are the elements of a just and
sustainable local economy?
• What would it look like?
• What would be happening?
• What wouldn’t be happening?
• How would it feel?
• What people be doing?
Getting Grounded
What it will take:
• A shared vision, shared analysis,
common public narrative and
establishing the necessary political
will.
• Build and repairing relationships
across the barriers of race, class and
place.
• A clear and shared commitment to a
new local investment strategy.
• Building capacity in several areas.
Who lives in the county?
• Between 2000 and 2010 county population
grew about 8% to about 103K
• City population grew about 2.5% to about 30K
County
80% White
8.6% Asian
4.2% Latino or Hispanic
4% Black
3.2% 2 or more
.4% Native American
City
66.7% White
16.2% Asian
6.9% Latino or Hispanic
6.6% Black
4.3% 2 or more
.4%Native American
Some interesting economic data:
County
City
Federal spending-$948.6million
Per capita income is $24,409
18.8 %Persons below poverty
level
-6.9% Families (13-14 hundred)
-63.6% of single mothers with
children under 5
9665 firms in 2007
.9% Black owned
5.3%Asian owned
Latino owned?
Per capita income is $16,041
44.4% Persons below poverty
level
-11.1%Families (325 families)
-87.1% of single mothers with
children under 5
2935 firms in 2007
Black owned ?
Asian owned?
Latino owned?
Median Family Income by Census Block, 2000
Percent in Poverty by Census Block, 2000
Some Key Points For A Public Narrative:
• There will be a tremendous investment in a
“green” economy over the next 10-20 years
in the Tompkins County Region.
• We would be wise to make as much of that
investment with local money as possible.
• Currently, capital invested in economically
marginalized communities does not
produce wealth. Instead, money flows into
and out of these communities very quickly.
• If funds are invested the way they have
been in the past, it will reproduce the
current inequities.
Some Key Points For A Public Narrative:
• If we want to create a just, sustainable
economy, we have to invest more locally and
• We have to invest in economically marginalized
communities in different ways.
• This means:
– Investors have to be willing to get a slower
return on their investment (Slow Money)
and understand how to “get in” and “stay
in.”
– We need to identify assets in marginalized
communities and think about how to
capitalize those assets so they produce
wealth in those communities.
Some Capacities We Must Develop
• Job readiness (especially in marginalized
communities)
• Cultural competency of employers and
employees
• How to identify and cultivate local markets for
new ideas, products and services
• How to identify and capitalize the assets of
marginalized communities and individuals
• How to identify and support entrepreneurs in
marginalized communities
• Networking-(linking job ready, job seekers to
local employers)
• How to create new products for local green
investing
Some Assets We Might Pay Attention to:
•
•
•
•
Youth
Creativity and ideas
Cultural assets
Potential Workforce
Interdependent
New Systems
Tompkins County Sustainable Economy System
POLICY
Education, Training,
Workforce Development
Skilled
Workforce
Business
Support Services
Financing
Triple Bottom Line
Enterprises and
Job Creation
Market Demand
For Sustainable
Products & Services
Consumer Education
Tompkins County Sustainable Economy System
POLICY
Financing
Workforce Development
Rebuilding the Wall, FL ReUse Center,
Retrofitting/Green Energy Jobs
TC3 Green Collar Curriculum,
Groundswell, Workforce Tompkins,
NYSERDA, Labor unions
Skilled
Workforce
Public: TCAD, IURA, STREDC,
NYSERDA, DOL, USDA
Private: AFCU, local banks,
Park P-R-I, BR Microcapital,
Slow Money CNY, ST’s LION,
FL Climate Fund
Triple Bottom Line
Enterprises and
Job Creation
Energy/Climate Plans
Green Purchasing Directives,
Regional Econ Dev Strategy,
Green Jobs, Green NY
Market Demand
For Sustainable
Products & Services
Employer Hiring
Business Expansion
Entrepreneurship
Worker Cooperatives
Business
Support Services
Business Cents, eLab,
SEEN, Worker Coop Incubator,
TC Chamber of Commerce
Consumer Education
Whole Community Project,
Get Your Green Back Tompkins,
Local First Ithaca, Green Resource Hub,
Finger Lakes Energy Challenge,
Ithaca Green Building Alliance,
CCE-TC, TC Solid Waste, TCCPI
Building a Just, Equitable & Sustainable
Economy in the
Tompkins County Region
Thematic Areas & Regional Projects—Interdependent Systems
Clean Environment
& Green Energy
Affordable Goods &
Services for a
Sustainable Lifestyle
Local Green
Investment
Socially Just
Green
Businesses
Jobs & Livable
Income
Educ./Prep,
21st C. Skills
& Training
Fresh
Affordable
Food
Building Demand for
Affordable
Sustainable Lifestyle
Goods & Services
Just, Sustainable
Food System —
Fresh, Affordable
Food
Workforce Prep,
Training & Access
to Sustainable
Jobs
Local Green
Investment
Green Energy
Jobs
Entrepreneurship
& Incubating Small
Businesses
Whole
Community
Project
and
Partners
Themes:
Just and Sustainable Food
System
Fingerlakes
ReUse
Center
Entrepreneurship and
Incubating Small Businesses
Get Your
Green
Back
Green Energy Jobs
Workforce Preparation,
Training, and Support
Building Demand for A Just
and Sustainable Life Style
Rebuilding
the Wall
Local Green Investing
Retrofitting
Housing
and
Businesses
E-LAB
Incubating
Entrepreneurship
& Small
Businesses
Open Space
Possible purposes of the open space time:
• Networking
• Planning next steps with others
• Getting more information from people
• Checking in with other people about how
you’re feeling and what you’re noticing-especially if you have an organizational,
action group or affinity group in the
workshop
Habits to Break—Habits to Cultivate
Discussion Questions for Breakout Session Two-Thematic Areas:
In order to build, repair and maintain the relationships, and
develop the capacities needed to be successful in this
thematic area, what will we need to think and do
differently?
• What habits of mind and behavior are in the way?
– What habits do we need to break?
– What will we have to stop doing?
• What’s needed instead?
• What habits do we need to cultivate?
– What do we need to start doing, continue doing or do more
of?
• What will make it hard to do these things?
• What support will you need?
Examples of habits to break:
•
People with resources and decision-making authority:
– Making decisions without getting input from people who
will be affected by those decisions
– Planning activities and events and including other people
as an afterthought
– Not listening when people tell you things you don’t
particularly want to hear because the information if used
would disrupt your plans
•
People with fewer resources and decision-making authority:
– Assuming that your voice doesn’t make a difference
– Assuming that you don’t have any power or influence
– Pulling each other down, in-fighting, bad-mouthing each
other
Examples of habits to cultivate:
•
People with resources and decision-making authority
– Establishing relationships outside your comfort
zone
– Listening carefully
– Including people who have been marginalized in
the decision-making conversations and at least
letting them know the conversations are taking
place
•
People with fewer resources and decision-making
authority
– Keep yourself informed about what is going on
– Show up
– Support each other
Open Space
Discussion Questions (optional):
• Opportunities; what seems possible and what
seems exciting?
• Specific next steps we are each interested in
taking to make a difference in the thematic
areas &/or to support one of the case samples
• Support we will need from others
• Next steps we should take together (e.g. next
meetings)
• What support is needed from the planning
group?
Roundtable Discussion Questions:
• Specific next steps we are each willing to take
to make a difference in this area, to support
one of the projects
• Support we will need from others
• Any next steps we should take together (e.g.
next meetings)
• Set up individual meetings to explore possible
partnerships/alliances?
• What support will be needed from the
planning group?
Check-in on our goals
for the past two days:
• Do we have:
– A shared vision of what a just and
sustainable local economy looks like?
– A shared analysis of our situation and a
narrative that we can share with others?
– A shared set of strategies for achieving our
vision that all (or most of us) believe have
a good chance of working?
– Stronger relationships and a shared
commitment to take the specific actions
that will make those strategies successful?