• Change the narrative
• Generate community investment
• Build ownership models
• Consciousness
• Capacity
• Generative capital for local ventures
• Local ownership of local assets
• Community wealth
We are committed to imagining and creating new possibilities. We grow forward by carving a path forward, removing barriers, going from programs to systems. We build ladders.
We take an ecosystem approach, building the plane and the runway. We are building intergenerational wealth for neighborhoods and families. We believe in acting as whole-people and whole-communities, bringing to bear all of the assets and capitals that exist in ourselves and our places.
We hold ourselves accountable to producing positive impact through both process and results. We seek communities that generate opportunity and prosperity for everyone. Wealth generates resilience.
Assets, wisdom, and resilience abound in our communities and people. Our role is to enable them to thrive. We make offerings from our strengths. We believe that the complexity required for shared prosperity can only be held by community.
Offer an alternative vision/alternative options to the current/dominant approach to economic development.
Encourage people to imagine alternatives, cultivate responsibility and enthusiasm.
Build and spark vehicles for local investment.
Activate a network of motivated community investors.
Develop a pipeline of community investees.
Generate and preserve locally owned and community benefitting assets.
Increase revenue. Secure paid staff capacity. Continuously learn and improve. Consider structure.
• Urging state and local government officials to use American Rescue Plan Act recovery funds to advance community investment and ownership
• Creating a pilot Community Investment Fund for Rhode Island
• Leveraging existing ecosystem resources to weave stronger support for models that promote wealth, resilience, and regeneration
• Raising the public’s consciousness around economic choices
We Do This By
• Building the local community investment ecosystem.
• Increasing community consciousness and capacity around local economies, community investment, and ownership
• Promoting local policies and practices that support a vibrant and just local economy
Local Return builds programs that strengthen Rhode Island’s local economy by connecting people, capital, and community-driven ideas to create a more equitable and resilient economic future. See our current programs below.
Jumpstart Rhode Island works to revitalize Rhode Island through training, mentoring, and networking for local aspiring developers.
Anchor the Block is a Local Return program that prepares small business owners to purchase and own their commercial real estate.
Local Legacies exists to close that gap between the business owners approaching the end of one chapter needing a plan for what’s next for their business.
Move Your Money is a campaign to educate Rhode Islanders about the importance of spending, investing, and banking local and to inspire them to take action.
