This week's online discussion focuses on AFFORDABLE HOUSING.

Participate in the discussion

Help us brainstorm a list of businesses, organizations and initiatives that support affordable housing in our Monadnock Local Living Economy.

This week's online discussion focuses on LIVING WAGE JOBS & EQUITY.

Participate in the discussion

Help us brainstorm a list of businesses, organizations and initiatives that support living wages and equity in our Monadnock Local Living Economy.

This week's online discussion focuses on HEALTH & WELLNESS.

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Help us brainstorm a list of businesses, organizations and initiatives that support health and wellness in our Monadnock Local Living Economy.

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This week's online discussion focuses on EDUCATION.

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Help us brainstorm a list of businesses, organizations and initiatives that support Education efforts in our Monadnock Local Living Economy.

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Monadnock Buy Local recently received a grant from the New England Grassroots Environment Fund to support the launch of the Complete Economy Project in Keene, NH.

The Complete Economy Project will support the adoption of local policies that level the playing field for locally owned businesses in our region and spark business models that contribute to our local living economy. This project includes an innovative effort to re-frame local economy policy work into a movement in our region and beyond.

While the "Buy Local" trend gains momentum in the Monadnock Region, work at the policy level is needed to support a local economy that works for all.  Such policies can cultivate a more resilient community and help the City of Keene reach some of its Comprehensive Master Plan goals.

"What we really need to do is change the underlying policies that shape our economy," states Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.  "We can't do that through the sum of our individual behavior in the marketplace. We can only do it by exercising our collective power as citizens."

For more information, visit monadnocklocal.org/completeeconomy or contact Monadnock Buy Local at 603-499-7950.

The New England Grassroots Environment Fund energizes and nurtures long-term civic engagement in local initiatives that create and maintain healthy, just, safe and sustainable communities using stories, tools and dollars to fuel local activism and social change. Since 1996, the Grassroots Fund's core grantmaking program continues to fund nearly 150 grants annually, giving more than $4 million in 20 years to initiatives by better than 1,700 community groups covering more than 60 percent of New England's cities and towns.  For more information, please visit grassrootsfund.org or call 603-905-9915.

Monadnock Buy Local is a regional network of citizens, businesses and organizations that promotes the positive economic and community benefits of spending dollars locally, while supporting programs and policies that forward a local, green and fair economy. For more information, contact jen@monadnocklocal.org.

Originally Posted at Civic Economics

The American Booksellers Association and Civic Economics have long collaborated to study and describe the state of independent retail in America, but until now those efforts have focused on various classes of bricks and mortar stores. This report takes that research into a new era. It is designed to provide policymakers and consumers with a better understanding of the impact at the state and local level of the growth of online retail as a substitute for storefront purchases.

Essential Findings in New Hampshire

Originally posted on The Democracy Collaborative

Starting in 2007, the City engaged well over 2,000 people—out of a population of 23,000—to develop its participatory Community Vision and Local Climate Action Resilient Community plan to lower greenhouse gas emissions and improve resiliency.

Read the full article: Twenty Cities Building Community Wealth

Recap of Healthy Monadnock's Healthiest Community Summit IV

Nearly 130 people attended to hear about the progress that has been made since the last Summit III in June 2013, and to learn about the socio-economic factors (income and wages) that impact health, and how work to build capacity to address these issues in the Monadnock Region.

Read full article at Healthy Monadnock.