Summer Downsizing: 31 Ways to Jumpstart Your Local Economy

By Sarah van Gelder, YES! Magazine. Posted July 9, 2009.

18. Do home work parties. Each month, go to a different household to do major home greening, a garden upgrade, or some deferred maintenance.

19. Keep more people from becoming homeless by challenging evictions and occupying vacant homes.

20. Create a space at a farmers market to exchange or sell used clothes, electronics, games, CDs, plants, seeds, compost, and books. Encourage people to swap services, too, like haircuts, photography, or prepared dinners.

21. Reach out to groups that are organizing people on the frontlines of the crisis, like Jobs with Justice (www.jwj.org) and Right to the City (www.righttothecity.org).

IN YOUR COMMUNITY

22. Link up people looking for job skills with people who can offer apprenticeships.

23. Start a local currency or time dollar program to help link needs and offerings, those with time and those starved for time.

24. Use publicly owned lands for community gardens, farmers markets, business incubators, community land trusts (with affordable housing), community-rooted grocery stores.

25. Hold on to the local businesses you already have. Help retiring entrepreneurs sell to employees or other locals.

26. Create a car, kayak, and electric pick-up truck co-op to save money and carbon, and provide access to a variety of vehicles.

27. Create or join a chapter of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) or similar groups. Work together to find services or products you could substitute for imported ones, local assets you can build on, and ongoing institutions that could be serviced locally.

28. Start a community bank, loan fund, or credit union to invest in local well-being, or encourage existing ones to rethink their lending.

29. Declare an end to corporate personhood in your community. Barnstead, New Hampshire did, and, more recently, three communities in Maine have done it. You can too.

30. Hold a weekly dinner for the hungry. Ask those who attend to help serve food at subsequent dinners. (Having an opportunity to give is important for everyone's dignity).

31. Keep your energy dollars circulating locally. Launch a clean energy cooperative to install wind turbines or solar roofs, and to weatherize homes and businesses.

See more stories tagged with: sustainable, local, re-use, recycle, co-op

Sarah van Gelder is Executive Editor of YES! Magazine where you can read her blog.

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