WHAT IS COMMUNITY WEALTH BUILDING?
Community wealth building is a people-centred approach to local economic and community development that redirects wealth back into the local economy, and places control and benefits into the hands of local people, communities, businesses and organisations.
Community wealth building can be led by government, business or community and provides a set of principles, strategies and tools to enable government, industry, business and community to:
- Empower local people and places – By shifting more ownership, control and decision-making of the local economy and development to the people that value and rely on it the most – local business owners, local employees, local community, local consumers;
- Increase local ownership – by enabling local people to invest in and hold a financial stake in local assets and resources of all kinds – capital income, land, property, businesses, infrastructure and more;
- Increase local prosperity and opportunities – By stopping wealth flowing out of local places and redirect it back into the local economy;
- Make financial power work for local places – By building local financial systems and vehicles owned and controlled by local people;
- Anchor business and jobs to place – By growing businesses and jobs that are anchored locally and are committed to a region and its people;
- Strengthen regions, towns and local community – By creating systems, institutions, enterprises, infrastructure and cultures that reinforce community ownership, leadership and wealth building.
Benefits & Impact of Community Wealth Building
Community wealth building has proven to bring real benefits to local places and people. These include:
- Community: gives local stakeholders an ‘actual stake’ = a financial and controlling stake; increases public participation in local economic and development activity; improves local cohesion and partnerships; strengthens democracy and improves economic and social equality
- Individual & family: increases equitable individual and family wealth; increases individual wealth diversification, income security and resilience
- Local & regional: seeds innovation; optimises the local multiplier effect; increases regional prosperity and self-reliance; increases regional diversification, security and resilience; optimises local outcomes and benefits
- Local sustainable & regenerative development: Provides greater ability to direct local development and economic activities towards achieving sustainable and other development goals
OUR PROGRAMS AND SERVICES
We offer the following programs and services that can help you adopt community wealth building in your region, organisation and/or community. We also offer bespoke services to meet your specific needs, to discuss contact [email protected]
Community Wealth Building Community of Practice
Be part of a Community of Practice for regional agencies, local councils, local enterprises and individuals interested in and/or actively implementing community wealth building development strategies in their region and communities. Join the Community Wealth Building Community of Practice for networking, events and sharing innovation, projects, programs, initiatives, investing and more.
Community Wealth Building Courses
Build your knowledge and capability in community wealth building by participating in one of our specially designed courses or get in touch to discuss your capability needs.
Community Wealth Building Regional Scan
Gain valuable insights about the current state and potential for community wealth building in your region using Ethical Field’s Community Wealth Building Scan. The community wealth building scan provides a benchmark of where your region sits, and reveals gaps and opportunities across the core community wealth building principles. The scan identifies data and research required to develop an evidence-led strategy and plan. It can also be used as an engagement and capability building tool to introduce the principles of community wealth building to your stakeholders and inspire them by what’s possible. The community wealth building scan is ideal for local government, regional development authorities, state government and non-government organisations responsible for regional, economic and/or community development in a region.
Stakeholder Engagement and Strategic Planning
Engage and inspire your stakeholders in the potential and opportunities for your region, and identify key focal areas for community wealth building in your region using Ethical Fields Local Engagement & Strategic Planning Program. This program provides a combination of capacity building and strategic planning with key local stakeholders to inform the development of a community wealth building plan that is unique to your region. This can be undertaken with internal and/or external stakeholders depending on the stage of your journey.
Community Wealth Building Leadership Building
Build a network of local leaders from government, business and community proficient in community wealth building using Ethical Fields Community Wealth Building Leadership Program. This program will develop the capability and capacity of local leaders to undertake locally relevant economic development and create resilient, adaptive and self-reliant local economies and communities using community wealth building. As a result, leaders will be motivated, confident and supported to inspire, engage and enable their local government, business and community to leverage and transform the local economic, capital and development landscape to enable their region to thrive.
Community Wealth Building Strategic Insights & Strategy Development
Develop policy, strategies and/or plans to build community wealth in your region. We can support you to identify strategic solutions through quantitative and qualitative research, analysis and mapping of existing networks, identification of opportunities, drivers and barriers, providing examples of emergent and best practice and providing practical recommendations. We can help you to embed community wealth building into existing policies, strategies and plans or develop specific community wealth building policies, strategies and plans for your region.
Community Wealth Building Funding Design & Solutions
We design, test and develop funding models and strategies for community wealth building.
- Place Based Capital Program – Creating Local Capital
Now open for registrations. This program will bring together a group of 15 regions from across Australia to create the Place Based Capital Community of Practice. Working together this community of practice will explore and develop locally-led and locally-owned solutions to create place based capital and local investment vehicles that can harness investment from your region and attract aligned co-investment from government, institutional and private investors to invest in local development priorities. - CWB Capital Stack
Identify financing options that support community wealth building. We help design, test and develop the capital stack that will work for your initiative.
Community Wealth Building Anchor Collaboratives
Accelerate your goals and scale impact by developing an anchor collaborative. Anchor Collaboratives are a network of place-based anchor institutions that join together to develop, implement and support shared goals and initiatives that advance community wealth building. Anchor collaboratives intentionally align and leverage the significant every-day business activity of local anchor institutions in local hiring and purchasing, place-based investing and community wealth building practices to create jobs, increase incomes, build community/local/broadly held wealth, and spur community investments to redress systemic inequities. We can help you to engage and develop an anchor collaborative in your region.
Impact Supply Chains & Procurement
Harness supply chain networks and/or procurement to build community wealth. Supply chains and procurement provide valuable policy levers to achieve community wealth building goals in your region and/or organisation. We can support do this through quantitative and qualitative research, analysis and mapping of existing networks, identification of opportunities, drivers and barriers, providing examples of emergent and best practice and providing practical recommendations.
Bespoke programs and services
We offer bespoke programs and services to meet your community wealth building interests and needs.