Community and individual wealth are typically built through ownership, profit-sharing, and investment, yet the opportunity to use these mechanisms is declining in most communities and has largely been unavailable to many. Tune in to REI's most recent podcast on Community Capital via Apple or Spotify.
REI Innovation Fellow Chris Miller, founding Board Member and Chair of the National Coalition for Community Capital (NC3), walks listeners through what community capital is and shares updates on efforts being made to advocate, educate, and build supportive economic development policy for communities. Speaking about the lack of reinvestment of capital in Michigan communities, Miller states, “In communities where we don’t have recirculation of capital, it is virtually impossible to build wealth…when a dollar comes into the city of Detroit via somebody’s paycheck, it exits Detroit in less than 20 minutes…”. Chris is an experienced Economic Development Specialist and Special Projects Consultant at PlaneWave Instruments.
REI Coordinator, Jenan Jondy also questions Chris on HB4691, a bill in the Michigan legislature - a first in the nation - that would build on top of previous law, augmenting capital support for small businesses while encouraging local investment that builds resiliency and wealth within communities.
The MSU Center for Community and Economic Development podcast is aimed at providing outreach to community members, students, and our networks throughout the state of Michigan. The Community and University podcast series features economic developers and committed scholars who share their knowledge and experience around equitable economic development within their communities and across the state. The podcast provides an additional platform for strategic partnerships, knowledge sharing, responsive community engagement, and collaborative learning to support the creation and identification of innovative tools, models, policies and practices to increase the number of small businesses; create access to job skill development; improve public infrastructure; advance high-growth entrepreneurship and strengthen underserved communities and historically excluded citizens. By hearing various insights and perspectives, an opportunity is created to enrich the continuing discussion around equitable economic development and thought given the wider implications that economic development practices have on distressed communities in Michigan.
Visit Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or the CCED website to listen to past podcasts.