Group sows seeds of new economy

AMHERST - Late last summer, Keya Hicks, co-chair of the community organizing group Alliance to Develop Power (ADP), firmly stood in front of 40 other ADP members in Springfield. With emotion and in detail, she recounted events that took place in the same spot just a few months before, when a tornado blew in.

"All I can hear is it's like a freight train. I can hear all of the windows being smashed in and things falling ... When I went outside and saw what I saw and I walked up the streets to see people just roaming the streets, they had this lost expression ... and then we pulled together, to help each other, to let everyone know it was going to be okay."

The three tornadoes that ripped through western Massachusetts June 1 destroyed homes and businesses, displaced hundreds of people, and resulted in three deaths and hundreds of injuries. The financial and human costs are ongoing and difficult to measure, but the final tally, as well as who benefits or suffers from redevelopment initiatives, will depend on the type and quality of development projects Springfield and other communities choose to support.

Hicks's testimony opened a meeting aimed at creating a vision for sustainable and equitable development in Springfield, in the wake of the tornadoes. The goal was to think big. ADP members asked, "How can we create long term, living wage jobs?" "How can we restore people's hope for stronger communities?"

As ADP co-chair Andrea Goldman succinctly put it, "We need to make sure that the people that live in Springfield get to decide what their city is going to be like."

The group is now launching the South End Hope Initiative, a public art project that will transform ADP's headquarters in Springfield's South End into a site for community discussion and action. The effort is realized through a variety of "pop-up" projects that engage Springfield residents in different ways. A film series will generate discussion around sustainable and grassroots economic development. Area youth will design and paint a mural on ADP's building reflecting their vision for Springfield. A community garden adjacent to the building will feed bodies with healthy, local food, while grounding community conversations about food politics.

Throughout the activities, the words and images of community members will project onto the front of the building, illuminating new ideas, hopes and dreams for Springfield's future. And in the spring, ADP will invite Springfield residents, businesses and community groups to an evening gala to begin to discuss how to act on ideas for change.

The public art project implores us to think beyond failed development strategies that give away public money to corporations through tax breaks and incentives, and that too often de-prioritize the needs of working people, poor communities and communities of color.

Indeed, the initiative aims to create grassroots development instead of gentrification and displacement, collective decision making instead of "expert" planning and investment in community resources instead of corporate patronage.

These ideas are not new; ADP has been successfully implementing an alternative model of decision making and development throughout the Pioneer Valley for decades. ADP is a member-driven community organizing group led by and fighting for the interests of poor people and people of color. Its campaigns often include the creation of a new business or institution that ADP members own and control.

Since 1994, when members began to organize and take ownership of their rental housing, ADP has steadily grown its cooperative, community economy. In addition to 770 units of affordable cooperative housing, the community economy includes worker-owned businesses, a worker center, cooperative food banks, health services and other community building initiatives. Now in the works: a "bodega" project that will bring fresh produce from local farms to food deserts in Holyoke, Springfield and Turners Falls.

This cooperative development is a boon to ADP members who enjoy living wage jobs and can take the lead in building strong, healthy communities. ADP seeks to balance the needs of the individual, their businesses, the community and the environment.

ADP's community economy model may come at just the right political moment. As unemployment remains high and the gap between rich and poor widens, people are looking for alternatives to business as usual. Last month in Springfield, Mayor Domenic Sarno announced the Wellspring Initiative, an effort to provide secure, living wage jobs through the creation of worker-owned cooperatives in the city. Inspired by the Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland, Wellspring proposes a collaboration with local institutions like Baystate Health or Springfield Technical Community College, whose purchasing power would help the fledgling enterprises.

It's encouraging that the city is interested in supporting creative development ideas. But, if we are going to truly build a new economy, one that puts the needs of our neighborhoods and friends before profit, it won't happen through city government or through the business community alone.

The construction of a truly cooperative economy requires the ideas and will of the people. ADP has shown that collectively organizing to create institutions that put people before profits is possible.

The South End Hope Initiative intends to build on these ideas. For people interested in a more sustainable, equitable and prosperous community - this project may be for you.

For more information or to get involved, visit http://howcanwe.org. For more information on the community organizing group Alliance to Develop Power, visit http://a-dp.org.

Boone W. Shear is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.