IfE and the U.S. network Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC), are joining forces to launch a collaboration across the U.S., bringing poor and marginalized communities into the global Field Hearings network and facilitating community discussions across the U.S. on initiating “solidarity economy” approaches such as community banks, and worker, producer or consumer cooperatives.

At the June 2015 U.S. Social Forum in Philadelphia, IfE and PPEHRC put on a joint workshop entitled “Building a sustainable, people-centered economy through participatory economic development.”  (See report here: US Social Forum Workshop 2015.) We discussed participatory processes for facilitating community-initiated economic development that, unlike the current system, would be democratically governed, environmentally and socially sustainable, and promote ever-greater levels of equality. By engaging community members, the needs and priorities of the community can direct the process of economic development.