David, You've got a really inspirational story here: One of their key goals is to create work for the unemployed -- 18 percent of > the Elkhart County work force -- matching them with people needing their > skills and willing to temporarily hire them.
"This is one thing you can do, you can give them some work," said > Shrock-Shenk, a Goshen consultant active in civic affairs. "The unemployed > people have skills and assets, so it's a fair exchange." It doesn't stop there. Shrock-Shenk also envisions: > * Recruiting the unemployed with the requisite skills to help the public > plant backyard gardens, for a fee. > * Creating a "recovery workshop" to help the unemployed deal with the shock > of losing their jobs. > * An initiative aimed at retrofitting Elkhart County homes to boost their > energy efficiency. > * A detailed analysis of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to > determine what sort of federal stimulus funding Elkhart County can tap. This is what a good community is all about. Best of luck and do keep us posted! You are setting a great example for how community organizers can help foster healthy growth in a local economy. Best,Tony Bacigalupo ------------------------ Coworking: http://nwcny.com Book: http://imouttaherethebook.com Recession: http://runwayproject.org Personal: http://tonybacigalupo.com On Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 7:06 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, friends: > > I believe I sent an introduction early, as is the custom with this group. > I hope so. In any case, I'm including a link that introduces Goshen > Bricolage through an article in the local newspaper. > > http://www.etruth.com/Know/News/Story.aspx?ID=478679 > > Goshen is a fairly small town, maybe 30,000 residents in Elkhart County, > which has gained notoriety as the "white hot center" of the national > recession. Our official unemployment in the county is 18%. Many workers > here has irregular official status. Our real unempoyment here is probably > closer to 25% > > This has proven to be a real blow to my hopes for Goshen Bricolage. Folks > who were on the verge of signing a lease for the space where Bricolage > exists (about 2500 sq ft) backed out. So while I always hoped to have a > small 1000 sq ft coworking space, circumstances have pushed me to develop a > larger space. > > Necessity being the mother of invention, I decided to form a new > organization to fill the space. That sounds totalitarian. I decided to > form a new organization to help fill a social need. The new organization is > located in Bricolage. Call it social entrepreneurism. An article about > that effort is below. > > http://www.etruth.com/Know/News/Story.aspx?ID=479376 > > Reading this group every day has been a huge inspiration. Although I don't > respond, I have been cheered by membership here, and I send good thoughts > and best wishes to everyone else who is engaged in this good work. > > Yours in peace, > > > David > Goshen Bricolage > 206 South Main Street, Suite One > Goshen, IN 46526 > (574) 534-0903 > [email protected] > > > > ------------------------------ > New Low Prices on Dell Laptops - Starting at > $399<http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1220433304x1201394525/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fad.doubleclick.net%2Fclk%3B213540718%3B35046385%3Be> > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
