Sierra Nevada Local First

The Think Local First Program has been created to foster increased support for people and businesses creating and maintaining sustainable local economies and thriving communities in the Sierra Nevada. The program is focused what communities are for rather than what they are against.

Click here to watch a quick video about the program.

Our Local First program seeks to create local living economies throughout the Sierra Nevada. Following a model developed by BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) the Local First program works to ensure that economic power resides locally, sustaining healthy community life and environmental quality as well as long-term economic prosperity. Through celebratory events, marketing of local independent business, networking, local buying guides and coupon books, and other educational efforts, we seek to foster support for the business and people that make our communities special and strong.

SBC is piloting Local First campaigns in four communities throughout the Sierra Nevada including Plumas County, Truckee-North Tahoe, Auburn, and Western Nevada County (Grass Valley and Nevada City). The purpose of these campaigns is to support the locally-owned independent businesses that sustain our communities and give our towns unique character. When enterprises are locally rooted, human-scale, and owned by local community members, there is a natural incentive for all concerned to take human and community needs and interests into account. When needs are met locally by locally owned enterprises, people have greater control over their lives, money is recycled in the community, jobs are more secure, economies are more stable, and there are the means and the incentives to protect the environment and to build the relationships of mutual trust and responsibility that are the foundation of community.

Objective: The objectives of the Local First Program lie in re-localizing Sierra economies and providing multiple local, regional, and global benefits. These benefits include:More vibrant, unique, healthy, and happy communities; Resilient, diverse local economies; Smaller environmental footprint; Food and energy security; Good, stable jobs and skill building; Reduced waste; New business opportunities; Proactively modeling sustainability; Improved competitive advantage of Sierra communities to attract visitors and new enterprise based on quality of life measures.

If you are interested in getting involved, finding out what’s happening, or starting a campaign in your area, email regional project managers Nikki Streegan and Mary Canada.

The following is an excerpt from an article called Some Communities are Successful by George R. McDowell:

"Community vitality is a long-run concept that requires more than just the efficient use of resources in the short run to generate profits, jobs, and income for current community residents. Markets for products and services come and go, along with changing preferences and changing definitions of acceptable living standards. Changing technology has a profound influence on production and consumption patterns, on the use of resources, and on the comparative advantage of specific uses and users.

These dynamic conditions in the economy and the society make it necessary for a community and its people to be flexible, adaptable, and capable of making decisions on resource uses—decisions that adjust to change. Indeed, the major message of both Drucker (1985) and Birch (1987) in their discussions of the changing national economy is that individuals, and presumably communities, must be adaptable and prepared for change." Click here to read the whole piece.