UniEcoBudget Working Group

There are four summary points and three propositions which are repeated for emphasis in the “1000Communities2” proposal. 

 

The 4 summary points appear on p. 6, 11, and 85; the three propositions appear on p. 15, 63-64, 71, 125, and 154.  In this context, it is also appropriate to include “Step 12” (“Summary Presentations and Job Fairs”)(see p. 38-39) of the 15 Step Outline for a Community Visioning Initiative, which includes specific reference to “just transition”—people who might be or who are losing their jobs getting assistance, and local currency for contributing time, energy, and money to building the “ways of earning a living” which are essential to overcoming the challenges of our times. 

 

 

Excerpt 1—Four Summary Points

 

This particular proposal—“1000Communities²”—advocates a model for Community Visioning Initiatives which would allow as much time, possibly even as much as 1½ years, so as to give as much importance to developing a close-knit community as it does to

 

                a)  contributing to accumulating and integrating the knowledge and skill sets

necessary for the highest percentage of people to act wisely in response to challenges identified as priority challenges

b)  helping people to deliberately channel their time, energy, and money into the creation of “ways of earning a living” which are directly related to resolving high priority challenges

 

c)  assisting with outreach, partnership formation, and development of service capacity for a significant number of already existing (or forming) organizations and businesses

 

d)  helping to build a high level of consensus for specific action plans, which will help inspire additional support from people, businesses, and organizations with significant resources

 

 

Excerpt 2—Three Propositions

 

1)  There are countless numbers of “things people can do in the everyday circumstances of their lives” which will contribute to peacebuilding, community revitalization, and ecological sustainability efforts, in their own communities and regions—and in other parts of the world.

 

2)  People can, one by one, decide to deliberately focus the way they spend their time, energy, and money so that their actions have positive repercussions on many or all of the action plans which emerge from Community Visioning Initiatives.

 

3)  The result can be that there are countless ‘ways to earn a living’ which contribute to the peacebuilding, community revitalization, and ecological sustainability efforts necessary to overcome the challenges of our times.

 

 

Excerpt 3— Excerpt from section “A 15 Step Outline for a “1000Communities²” Version of a Community

                Visioning Initiative” in “1000Communities²” (see p. 38-39) 

 

 

Step 12   Summary Presentations and Job Fairs

 

(Approximate Time Required:  4 weeks)

 

A.  Goals

 

                                1)  Steering Committee members (with help from volunteer Advisory

                                                Board members, etc.) will summarize the Community Visioning

                                                Initiative process

                                2)  Steering Committee members-- and key community leaders who

                                                were very much involved in the CVI process—will make

                                                presentations based on the summaries

                                3)  Specifically, information will be provided on how residents can

                                                deliberately focus their time, energy, and money so that their

                                                actions

                                                a)  can have positive repercussions on many fields of activity

                                                                relating to solutions

                                                b)  can result in an increase in the “ways of earning a living”

                                                                which are related to solutions and action plans

                                4)  Job Fairs will provide a forum for organizations and businesses

                                                working in solution oriented fields of activity to describe

                                                employment opportunities and future prospects, to discover

                                                local talent, to hire qualified prospects, and to build knowledge

bases and skill sets for the future

 

 

B.  Suggestions

 

1.  Although a final published summary of the CVI process (with overall statistics and evaluation survey results) will not yet be available, input on challenges priorities, solution priorities, and action plan summaries will be sufficient for

 

a)  Steering Committee members-- and key community leaders who were very

much involved in the CVI process—to make presentations based on the  preliminary summaries

b)  Booths in local auditoriums to be allocated to businesses and organizations for

very practical and informative job fairs

 

 

Special Commentary:  By now, there will have been sufficient public discourse for those people with understanding about high level shifts in investment portfolios to have learned something about what directions future shifts will be leaning towards.  The job fairs which come at the end of the CVI process provide opportunities for all key stakeholders in the community (businesses, organizations, institutions, government, etc.) to demonstrate their upgraded awareness—and their interest in the welfare of the community—by offering and facilitating new employment opportunities… and thus helping with a just transition from patterns of investment which in only limited ways represent solutions to prioritized challenges to patterns of investment which in many ways represent solutions to prioritized challenges.

 

Note:  As mentioned on p. 125, one aspect of this just transition can be that people who do deliberately focus their investments of time, energy, and money towards solutions identified by the Community Visioning Initiative being carried out in their community may receive, as encouragement, local currency.  And then such local currency can, in its turn, be redeemed in ways which will be particularly helpful to people transitioning from less solution-oriented employment to more solution-oriented employment.

 

 

2.  People who want CVI processes of this nature to truthfully reflect the challenges before us-- and the solutions which will help us overcome those challenges—will provide resources and supporting evidence at the appropriate steps in the process which is worthy of that kind of conclusion.