Pomona Valley Wellbeing Project
WEAll California’s first local wellbeing economy project is in the city of Pomona. The project is a partnership between the Latino and Latina Roundtable, the Institute for Ecological Civilization, the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, and Pomona community leaders.
As of Jan 2023, we are eighteen months into our work and are excited for the project to grow this year. A second round of funding will be starting soon which will allow us to hire a full time project manager.
In 2022, we built our core team, met with City Officials and started developing a larger coalition of organizations within the community. We held several community based meetings. Our first group of meetings was to get feedback on creating wellbeing economies in Pomona.
In December, we held two community information events on how to create and sustain employee owned businesses.
Our focus for the next 6 months is to:
- Expand our Core Team
- Continue to support an ongoing coalition within the community
- Hold more community education and feedback meetings
- Hire a Project Backbone – link to application
- Conduct a community wide Values survey
- Research Methods to build Employee Owned Coops
- Begin planning an “Anchor Institution” Local Purchasing Model
If you would like to learn more, feel free to contact us, watch this video on the project or read our joint Mission Statement below:
mission statement for pomona valley wellbeing project
Our mission is to build a new economy that supports the wellbeing of all residents, particularly those who have historically been marginalized or exploited and those who today have access to the least amounts of wealth.
We recognize that, in addition to the harm that poverty causes to those who experience it, poverty and extreme inequality are threats to democratic governance and the prosperity of all.
We also recognize that the economy and the environment are closely linked, and that biodiversity and an environment free of pollution are essential components of human wellbeing. We therefore see the climate emergency as a wellbeing issue, and we seek economic forms that will preserve and restore the natural world.
To drive this economic transformation, we are pursuing three areas of action:
- We are engaging all Pomona residents, through grassroots and grasstops organizing, dialogues involving community members and political and industry leaders, and public events.
- We are working with city leaders to implement policies that put wellbeing first.
- We are launching a community wealth building project to improve the material wellbeing of low income Pomona residents.
We envision a future in which the way people live and work in Pomona is one piece of a larger wellbeing economy, without poverty and exploitation, and supporting a truly inclusive, multiracial democracy. We seek collaboration with all who are already working toward this goal.