Connecting community assets to market demand to build lasting livelihoods.
One new approach—WealthWorks—focuses on building lasting wealth for regions. But wealth means much more than money. Building lasting wealth means growing multiple capitals—a strong sense of community, good infrastructure, a well-trained workforce, unspoiled natural beauty, and inclusive and open government.
So how do you begin to build this lasting wealth? The challenge for you as an economic and community development practitioner is to identify a market opportunity that is right for your region.
The next step is to connect the capitals you’ve identified to the market opportunities you want to pursue first. A WealthWorks value chain helps you make that connection.
The final step is to gauge your wealth-building impact (through an evaluation framework), and then cycle back to see how your efforts have changed your initial assessment of capitals and opened new market opportunities.
