In a football game, for a play to be successful, every member of the team needs to buy into the play's design and the gameplan, even if that individual isn't the one with the ball.  In any company, the best plans and products are executed when every team member understands the goal and invests himself or herself fully into the success.  When a group of people or community come together to build something, and they each take pride in the outcome, the team is most likely to succeed.  Applying this to building cities, I believe one blueprint for restoring vibrancy and energy into struggling economies is by giving every body a stake in the outcome.  I think this means making the communities members both the producers and the consumers of a good or service.  Local art, created by locals.  Restaurants using ingredients made by local farmers.  In this way, we rise up in unison.

One of my favorite examples and most inspirational stories is that of the Empowerment Plan.  A Detroit based design student is building a business by having women who have been forced to live on the streets to work by creating outerwear/sleeping bags which are in turn distributed at low or no cost to other homeless residents in need.  The model works by accomplishing three things:

1. given local entrepreneurs and students a forum to hone skills

2. gives a product that meets basic survival needs to those who cannot afford it

and 3. most importantly, gives those put out of work a job to put passion into and use as a reference as they get back on their feet, a job at which they can feel good about producing a product, learning valuable skills, and giving back to those in the community.

This is a model I would love to see replicated in some way as we embark on this effort to restore our most impacted communities.  Let there be efforts that empower local residents while simultaneously giving back to those less fortunate.  Let us win and rebuild with compassion and an awareness for the greater good, so that when we come up, we bring everyone up with us and recognize that our success relies upon the success of our neighbors.

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