Past Events

Building a Community-Based Ecosystem for Manufacturing

By January 31, 2023February 21st, 2023No Comments

Thursday, February 9th from 3 p.m. -4:30 p.m.

ReImagine Appalachia partnered with Manufacturing Renaissance and the American Sustainable Business Network for our February 9th webinar entitled, “Building a Community-based Ecosystem for Manufacturing.” We were honored to work with these groups which have been leading this conversation in our nation for years.

Speakers included:

  • Mark Shanahan, Principal, New Morning Energy LLC
  • Dan Swinney, Founder and Director for Strategic Initiatives, Manufacturing Renaissance
  • Michael Alden Peck, Executive Director and Co-Founder, 1Worker1Vote
  • Kristen Barker, President and Co-Founder, Co-Op Cincy
  • Michael Partis, Executive Director, The Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative

There is increasing national attention on how to rebuild U.S. manufacturing – and there are resources available at the federal level for this work. The challenge is whether manufacturing revitalization will be done using old models of development that concentrate wealth or new ones that build local resilience. ReImagine Appalachia, Manufacturing Renaissance, and the American Sustainable Business Network highlighted new opportunities for revitalizing our economy through manufacturing. New manufacturing in the region can and should be rooted in the local community, include strong rights for workers and use ownership models that build local equity.  

In this event, we discussed regional principles for manufacturing in the region including strategic vision and identified its component parts and develop follow up actions to help build this work in Appalachia.

Watch the recording here