Maricela from Opportunity Threads and Keyla from Poder Emma

The Problem We are Addressing + Our Solution

Our vision is based on many years of organizing in two communities where we see clear success in rooting wealth in Western North Carolina, especially in BIPOC communities.

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Our path to impact:

  1. Identify common worker or cooperative challenges

  2. Work together to identify paths forward

  3. Seek allies, trainers or leaders who can help

  4. Hold space for shared learning and problem solving

  5. Document our learnings for the next generation of leaders

Strong Connected Roots

The communities that we come from, and the communities that we have built here in Western North Carolina are strong, with deep roots. But we are fighting a history here in the Southern US where for generations, the people in our communities have been used to build the wealth and left out of the gains. This puts our ecosystems at a historic disadvantage, with less assets to pull from, less firm ground to stand on. But by having our two ecosystems come together, PODER Emma and The Industrial Commons are pooling resources and people to build the skills we need to build resiliency and strengthen our communities. 

We work together, and work closely with our community members and through this work identify the needs of our two ecosystems. We jointly develop trainings, share skills and engage in exchanges that come from and fulfill those needs of our communities. And this allows our ecosystems to develop the leaders of our movements, both today and for the future. The result: we have jointly grown strong, firmly planted roots that spread deep into our Western NC soil.

Community Partners

Our work is deeply based on community organizing approaches, many learned from the Highlander Research and Education Center - a stalwart organizing training center in the rural south. We work with the voice and will of our community to build towards identified collective solutions and transformational change.

Emma is a specific community in Asheville, NC, which is quite urban; however, the more rural nature of Burke County resonates with the Emma community because it is home to many immigrants who, like rural people, have been left on the margins to build their own economy.

Both The Industrial Commons and Poder EMMA have spent many years leveraging existing assets and traditional institutions to bridge new economic ideas into old and entrenched systems. Our ecosystems have successfully worked with public school systems, local and state governments, universities, federal agencies, community college systems, local law enforcement and civic and business groups to transform local economies from ones of extraction to ones of wealth creation. We have also built things that are autonomous and parallel to those institutions.