A Dose of Inspiration
Posted: 1:25PM April 13th, 2011 | Comments
I had the good chance to visit three models of community-based sustainability in action this past weekend thanks to my professors at Edgewood College. (You should check out their Certificate in Leadership for Sustainability Course if you haven’t already!). We visited Sweet Water Organics a self-described hybrid social business focused on multiple bottom lines of ecology and equity and grounded in a diversity of income streams. The founder, James Godsil, is a visionary who speaks a community-centered language that honors local place and local people, and the potential in all that has been discarded, disregarded, and disempowered.
We followed this visit with a family style lunch at the Amaranth Bakery & Café. The founder of the bakery, David Boucher, moved to Milwaukee from Vermont bringing with him a philosophy of wealth creation different from the foreclosure, house flipping, quick-buck attitude plaguing many Milwaukee neighborhoods. David believes that wealth comes in the form of community. He is achieving his vision by creating neighborhood spaces that empower residents to see the potential in their community. The café is described as “a place for artists, artisans, and culture workers considering major investments in the industrial buildings and brown fields of the 30th St. Industrial Corridor”. I would say that folks gathering in the café are doing more than “considering”. Express Yourself Milwaukee now has an arts studio for inner city at-risk youth across the street from the café and a new community garden is on the way.
Our last stop was the Walnut Way Neighborhood, a community redevelopment effort founded by Sharon and Larry Adams. Sharon came back to her childhood home after a 30 year absence to find an entire neighborhood in absolute destitution. Abandoned by city services, it was a dumping ground for the unwanted whether they be things or people. Sharon bought her childhood home, met Larry and together they launched the Walnut Way Development Corporation rebuilding homes by training and paying disenfranchised laborers, empowering neighbors to grow their own food in community gardens, and creating a strong neighborhood center.
At the end of the day I left feeling inspired. I was inspired by the powerful vision behind each of these projects. By the respect for humanity held by each of these individuals. By the seeds of a sustainable future they are each sowing in their places and in their own ways.
