This is a job for growseattle.com and its community.
Small businesses are community builders if they are successful at niche marketing, and
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This is a job for growseattle.com and its community.
Small businesses are community builders if they are successful at niche marketing, and can be highly effective community builders if their target market is their neighborhood.
(Niche marketing is not "selling" or "advertising", it is building a business with specific clients in mind, and word-of-mouth, local marketing is the most carbon-neutral kind of business out there. (e.g. Wallingford's Molly Moon))
The City could combine
- community builder training (e.g. re-developed course currently open to enrollment through Engage Seattle - contact Sol Villarreal) with
- niche marketing training (e.g. Tad Hargrave's Radical Business Intensive is great for the services sector http://theradicalbusinessintensive.yolasite.com/intro.php should be integrated into GrowSeattle),
- education on local currencies, local living economies (Good Business Network http://www.balleseattle.org/), and
- specialized support and networking (Biznik.com is a great platform for entrepreneurs teaching one another small business skills and networking and supporting one another all the while, a down-right movement in the world of business)
- one comprehensive tool for neighborhood-based community building that supports the non-commercial interests of neighbors, combines well with in-person events, prints a newsletter, and gets buzz going among all neighbors regardless of the digital divide ... and protects privacy while offering government insight into what works in different neighborhoods
(a collection of tools are out there, and I'm creating a more appropriate, comprehensive one for my neighborhood. Here are some examples of what's already out there: http://jamaicaplain.neighborsforneighbors.org/
http://familynetwork.org/ http://www.neighborhoodnotes.com
http://neighborgoods.net//se/ardenwaldjohnson_creek/
In other words: Teach green entrepreneurs community building skills as niche marketing skills. A program promoting its cohesive training, specialized support, and networking opportunities to this part of the population full of potential strengthens local economies and build social capital.
Universities and highschools are of course involved.
This goes with "creating livable neighborhoods", "supporting neighborhood community builders", "rezoning for resilient and self-sufficient neighborhoods", "education", and "government transparency and communication" type ideas.
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