Our Mission
Unite Pennsylvania’s rural and urban communities to build just, regenerative, and resilient regional economies that are
self-reliant in basic needs, in order to
increase community wealth and equity,
reduce and sequester carbons,
and prepare for climate change.
What We Value in a Caring Economy
Cooperation and Generosity
Sharing our knowledge and resources with others is essential to addressing the challenge of climate change and advancing human evolution to a higher consciousness. By ending fear of not having enough for ourselves, we can move from a worldview of domination and violence to one of partnership and peace, from competition to collaboration, from individualism to community, from hoarding to sharing, and from fear to love.
Local Business Ownership
Decentralized business ownership spreads wealth and power broadly, creates local character, culture and identity, and builds local resilience and self-reliance. We value independent ownership, as well as cooperative ownership – consumer, worker and producer cooperatives – and public ownership of the commons, including wild lands and utilities such as water.
Regional Self-Reliance
Local production of basic needs increases community wealth, builds local resiliency, and decreases dependency on long-distance supply chains easily disrupted by increasingly chaotic weather, pandemics, cyber warfare, and social upheaval.
Small-to-Small and Fair Trade
Supplementing local production with small-batch, artisan products made in other regions increases variety, provides cultural exchange and builds a network of cooperative regional economies. What’s not available regionally, such as coffee, chocolate and tropical fruits, is imported through fair trade relationships that benefit the communities where products originate.
Economic Justice
Providing business opportunities and meaningful living wage jobs for economically marginalized populations, such as small farmers, entrepreneurs of color, women, former fossil fuel workers, the underemployed, veterans and returning citizens, builds stronger economies and more resilient, healthier and happier communities.
Healthy Eco-Systems
Our lives and the lives of future generations depend on protecting and regenerating our natural environment, including topsoil, air, rivers, streams, lakes, wetlands and aquifers, woods and forests, wildlife and other species. Our local economic systems must work in harmony with our eco-systems.
Advisory Board
Jill Fink
Executive Director
The Merchants Fund
Sidney Hargro
Advisor, Speaker, Philanthropy Executive
The Leaders Trust
Jamila Medley
Organizational & Leadership Development Consultant
Shawn Nesbit
President
Good Karma Cafe
James Johnson-Piett
Principal and CEO
Urbane Development
Tayyib Smith
Senior Principal
Little Giant Creative
Lynn Templeton
Owner & Founder
Renewal Studio LLC
Our Team
Cherron Perry-Thomas
Plant Medicine
Coalition Leader
Alex Donovitch
CFO and Zero Waste Advisor
Cameron McIntosh
Hemp Local Supply Chain
Coalition Advisor
Eric Titus White
Food Coalition Advisor