A community development model

Why do so many good ideas for building community resilience fail to get off the ground?

Can we turn that around?

When I first came across Richard Moore's line of reasoning, it struck a chord with me. After introducing and honouring the work of Transition Towns, Local currency initiatives, and the Wise Democracy movement, he points out the obvious Catch-22.

The fact is that most people are focused on their own activities, and their own day-today problems and concerns. They aren’t eager to put time and attention into something that offers them little immediate benefit. Besides, community empowerment is a radical concept. It’s based on the notion that we can’t count on governments, and that we can solve our own problems by working together. To many people such notions sound unrealistic, and it’s not surprising they aren’t motivated to participate. We have a Catch-22 situation here.

If significant progress could be seen in the community, lots of people would want to join in. But until lots of people join in, there won’t be significant progress. In the three threads of activism we have the ingredients necessary to create strong communities. We need a fourth ingredient: something that provides an immediate motivation for more local people to get involved.

Back in Feb 2006 I reviewed a book by Richard Moore and have followed his posts on and off over the years, and find them insightful and thought provoking. On re-reading the book review, the last lines spoke loudly to me as they painted a picture of a time - when large numbers of people might come to that most valued, harmonious and hopeful disposition of "we the people" - funny how imagination, vision, words and life all coincide. I couldn't help thinking about my involvement with Transition Towns over the last two years. I was eager to hear what the fourth ingredient might be.

I have been focusing my attention on the Waiheke food system for the last few years now, beginning with initiating a food exchange stall at our local market and a community garden situated next to the market. For the last few weeks i have been focused on how to get the initial steps of a Waiheke CSA project off the ground. Having been offered land to work with we needed to plan the plethora of details for how to grow the food, build and manage a membership base, and distribute the produce when it was ready for harvest. In the course of working on this plan, I found myself seeing links to many other parts of the local food system, which could benefit from seeing themselves as part of a bigger and more connected picture of a well fed population, thriving on an abundance of locally grown food.

The how, of this was the obvious question I kept asking, and I found myself pondering business models, which despite their often destructive consequences when focused on bottom-line-profits-for-shareholders thinking, have many organisational and systems benefits we might do well to take advantage of. Now back to Richard Moore's offering in a document titled "Community development: The Co-op Coupon Model". Having acknowledged the good work which is being done by Transition Towns, the Local currencies initiatives, and the Wise Democracy movement, Richard points out that the missing ingredient is investment funding.

Investment as the enabler and motivator In the world of dollar economics, it is well understood that development requires investment. Consider how a new dollar-based enterprise is typically launched. First a business plan is developed, showing how the enterprise can operate profitably, and identifying what funding will be needed to get the business off the ground. Then a funding source is sought – either an investor or a bank – who then funds the startup in return either for equity in the new enterprise, or else a commitment by the enterprise to repay the funding with interest out of its operations.

It makes sense to view community development as a start-up venture. Instead of a business plan for a company, we need a development plan for the community. And instead of profit-maximizing investors, we need local sponsors who see themselves as partners with the community, and who are willing to forego profit and wait until the community is thriving before their funding is repaid.

With a sound development plan, a flexible local exchange system, and sufficient sponsorship, it becomes possible to pursue community development in a systematic way. And when there’s money on the table, we can expect people to wake up and get interested. If real projects are being proposed, that will effect everyone, and if people are invited to help decide how the money is going to be spent, they are likely to be motivated to do so.

If I have whet your appetite for more, please read Richard's full 23 page document, which goes into considerable and thoughtful detail about a co-op driven community coupon system. I ran this past a friend in the community currency area, who suggested there is too much detail in the administration proposal. He thought that community projects evolve better with leadership and broad principles rather than hoping a whole community will accept such detailed organisation from scratch.

Even so, it is worthy of consideration by anyone seriously interested in the mechanisms which could enable us to quickly build the systems required to replace the bloated global and centralised models, as they continue their meteoric demise. If you are interested in exploring these ideas for local (Waiheke or New Zealand) initiatives please do get in touch with me.