BALLE – Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (Takoma Park, Maryland)
BALLE – Business Alliance for Local Living Economies
Takoma Park, Maryland
Website: http://bealocalist.org/
Mission Statement
Within a generation, we envision a global system of human-scale, interconnected local economies that function in harmony with local ecosystems to meet the basic needs of all people, support just and democratic societies, and foster joyful community life.
At the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, BALLE [bawl-EE], our work is focused on creating real prosperity by connecting leaders, spreading solutions that work, and driving investment toward local economies.
BALLE equips entrepreneurs with tools and strategies for local success, and we provide the national forum for the most visionary local economy leaders and funders to connect, build their capacity and innovate.
Issue Areas – Action Issues
Underlying all our work is a strong belief in “Prosperity for All.” The foundation of a new economy is an equitable society that values everyone. Localists know this requires working on multiple fronts. And after more than a decade of doing this work, we focus on the highest impact strategies: we call them our Core Four. You’ll see a focus on Prosperity for All and the following Core Four throughout our webinars, toolkits and resources.
- Local First – Increasing demand for locally owned, made and grown businesses, goods and services. We showcase effective models, campaigns, policies and programs that expand business ownership opportunities to more people, and shift purchasing towards locals first.
- DIY Entrepreneurs – Sharing lessons learned from ‘Do It Yourself’ entrepreneurs who look for entrepreneurial opportunities to make, grow and serve their own community – whether it’s vegetables, furniture or energy. Showcasing the business models for economic self-reliance, we offer a national offering of Localist success stories.
- Community Capital – Unleashing local money to finance healthy, diversified local economies. Featuring promising new models in crowdfunding, community supported enterprise, triple bottom line banking, local investment clubs, and so many more ways to connect your local businesses with local lenders, investors and donors.
- Better Together – There is no such thing as a ‘sustainable business’ in isolation. Learn about the best models for linking local businesses to leverage purchasing power, policy change, sustainable impact, marketing dollars and more. By working together we can accomplish so much more.
Student Name and Class Year: Michel Wahome, MS ’10
If you are interested in getting in touch with this student/alum, please contact Caroline Ramaley, [email protected]
