Welcome to the Sonoma County GoLocal Cooperative
A Short Video About GoLocal
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Who We Are
The Sonoma County GoLocal Cooperative is a network of locally-owned businesses, non-profit organizations, government agencies and residents working together to build a resilient, thriving, local economy by supporting local, independently owned businesses and promoting sustainable practices.
GoLocal is Sonoma County's network of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), promoters of the concept of "Triple Bottom Line" - people, planet and profit, and The American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA), working to advance the social, cultural and economic well being of communities.
What We Do
GoLocal's mission is to reclaim our local economic power by . . .
- Educating the community on the need to support locally owned businesses to create a resilient economy
- Engaging all community stakeholders by providing ownership in the cooperative
- Formalizing and strengthening community relationships by building a diverse and active membership
- Sustaining well-being through community reinvestment and enterprise incubation
Why We Do It
Locally owned businesses are the foundation for a thriving local economy. By working together we can ensure that our economic power resides locally to sustain livable communities, healthy ecosystems and increased quality of life for Sonoma County residents.
Our Values
- We value our time, health, each other and the resources we all depend on - clean air, pure water, fertile soil and the sun's energy.
- We value the scale, structure, and complexity of community.
- We value resourcefulness and accountability.
- We value equity and fairness.
- We value the strength of the individual and the power of many.
- We value the future.
Our Approach
Most of our work is done in partnership with existing entities, based on research supporting our desired outcomes and following models that work. While our team is innovative and forward-thinking, we know many answers already exist. It is a matter of finding successful models, blending solutions and bringing them home.
While we have grand plans, we know this is a lifetime of work and will be implementing our plans in manageable steps. We will plan, measure our progress, adjust, evolve our programs and build on our success. Our work will evolve as our membership develops and we are informed by feedback from our programs. We also acknowledge that the world around us is changing very quickly. The national economy is in the midst of transformation. We know this will continue to affect our work, although we don’t know exactly how. We will stick to our overall vision, but remain flexible as circumstances evolve.
Our Inspiration
There are many leaders, writers, researchers and models we use for our inspiration:
* Van Jones’ Green Collar Jobs Program
* Bill McKibben’s writings in ‘Deep Economy’
* Michael Shuman’s ideas and research on import substitution
* Stacey Mitchell’s public policy work through the New Rules project
* Local investment strategies through Calvert, RSF Social Finance, Investor's Circle
* Growing momentum of Slow Food, Slow Money and Slow Cities
* The Economics of Happiness, Building Genuine Wealth by Mark Anielski
* Other BALLE and AMIBA networks in Bellingham, WA, Denver, CO, Santa Fe, NM and many others
Our Motto
Shop local, Bank local, Grow local, Eat local, Buy local, Made local, Play local, Heal local, Read local and GoLocal!
GoLocal Pledge
I pledge to become more aware of my impact and contribution to the community, economy, and environment. I understand the importance of supporting our independent, locally-owned businesses and will ‘think local first’ when making daily purchasing decisions.
Learn about the people behind the Sonoma County GoLocal Cooperative and our story...
