PlacerSustain: Voices of Placer County's Sustainability Community

PlacerSustain is stewarding the development of a Community Sustainability Network in Placer County.  The network is open to all, brings resources and people together, and facilitates collaboration between people and organizations.  The Goal is help bring about orders of magnitude more public involvement and support for the actions necessary to create local sustainable communities, and to connect people and organizations with resources in the Community. We, each of us, are the primary resources to bring this about. The opportunity is to get to know each other; our interests, goals, skills, organizations, stories, and from this foundation, develop and expand working relationships to take action. 

The core building blocks of the "community network" are existing people and organizations that in turn have networks, or groups of people, that they are working with.  In other words, we already have the elements of what it takes to take our existing efforts to a much higher level.  What is needed is to bring together and leverage these resources, and greater collaboration on building community support from there.  The formation of such Community Sustainability Networks is a national and global movement.  Links to a variety of existing initiatives that are getting organized are posted on the PlacerSustain website.

Many businesses, governmental organizations, and non-profits already recognize the value of networking to build capacities, markets, and constituencies.  The same basic strategy and benefits apply to building a Community Sustainability Network that leverages these benefits on a larger geographic scale and aggregates public access and involvement across "silos."

Here are some of the benefits and value of a Community Sustainability Network:

People:

• Discover Opportunities to be in Service to the Community
• Share information about personal interests and goals
• Get support from people and organizations with similar interests to join with you in taking action
• Express your views on matters that affect you and the community
• Join with others to strengthen your voice and influence on public affairs
• Support the work needed to preserve our local quality of life
• Improve your access to resources--people, businesses, governmental programs, local healthy food

Businesses:

• Expand Customer Base
• Facilitate Public Access to Information about your Business Services
• Publish Your Goals and Mission of Service to the Community
• Maintain Active Relationships with Customers and Peers
• Support the expansion and diversification of the local economy, including through BuyLocal and Green Commerce information

Government:

• Public Outreach and Education
• Expanded Citizen Participation in Programs and Projects, including Program Monitoring
• Expanded Public Support for Governmental Objectives
• Facilitate peer collaboration with other stakeholders--cities, non-profits, regional organizations, educational institutions, private business, community organizations
• More efficient use of, and access to, resources.

Non-Profits:

• Expand Membership and financial support
• Public Outreach on Mission and Programs
• Cross-networking/constituency development by working collaboratively with other organizations in the Community Network
• Expand information services to members, supporters, and the general public
• Maintain constituency and peer relationships for collaborative program development and greater efficiencies.