Better Together

The Community Stakeholder Alliance is key to a thriving community.

The model of sustainable community development is changing from one of shareholders (generally driven by monetary capital) to one of stakeholders (engaging the full spectrum of community wealth) for the purpose of producing the individual and mutual well-being of all the participants, in an ongoing way.

Who are community stakeholders? They are generally defined as people, groups, organizations or businesses that have interest or concern in the community. Stakeholders can affect or be affected by the community’s actions, objectives and policies. Some examples of key community stakeholders are residents, community groups, developers , government workers (and the agencies they represent), business owners, neighborhood leaders, commission members and other groups from which the community draws its resources.

As communities come together to emerge the story of their shared future, individual stakeholders need a powerful new story that they are a part of the community and not separate from it. This story must properly situate people in their communities — neither isolated from each other by virtue of our proscribed history, nor overwhelmed by the enormity of the task of reclamation due to lack of experience. We are equal partners with all that exists, co-creators with leaders both visible and invisible…