Food naturally brings people together. Whether it’s making a meal, supporting a farmer, sharing a recipe, or celebrating a special occasion: food is communal.
Local banks and credit unions are part of a toolkit of sustainable solutions that drive change in our place-based economies. To dig deeper, Local First connected with Lake Michigan Credit Union earlier this month in an effort to learn how they keep our dollars close to home and create people-first solutions.
The People First Economy Podcast is here to bring you insight into how we, our businesses, and our partners are all working towards building and participating in a People First Economy! You’ll hear stories, ideas, tools, campaigns, and whatnot that align with our efforts to build this new economy!
There’s no denying we need financial systems to keep the world goin’ round. Access to capital supports the growth of resilient, placed-based economies. Ideally, these economies meet our basic needs, build wealth and social capital, work in harmony with our ecosystem, and encourage joy. But do our current financial systems work for us?
Thank you for joining Local First for the third of four Rebuilding our Local Economy webinar events! Each quarter, the Local First team brings new resources and technical support to you by tapping the expertise of our community.
Coffee Hour is back in person! This last year has taught us the immense value in gathering as a community and building connections.
Get to know Featherlight
Raise your hand if you're a small business owner or employee looking for a better way to run your subscription based website. Good news! There's a local way to create and revamp your website or ecommerce site - Featherlight! Learn more about this service from our Q&A with owner Tyler Doornbos.
Have you seen shopLOCUS.com yet? It's time to give it a whirl! LOCUS offers an e-commerce platform to find and support local, independent businesses. Your Local First team is a big fan and we hope you enjoy learning more about the people and the vision behind this awesome platform. Check out our Q&A with LOCUS owners Jill DeJonge and Eric Haslinger:
Independents Week is back! Celebrate our local, independent businesses with Local First the week of June 28th to July 4th.
Each year, people across the country and the globe celebrate holidays that hold special significance. Some are religious, some commemorate lost lives, some celebrate historical dates of significance.
Many of these major holidays and days of observance impact our economy in one way or another, with businesses closing to give staff the day off, or ramping up to sell merchandise. Few of these holidays, however, have as close a tie to our economic history and our country’s people as Juneteenth.