A BIOREGIONAL APPROACH
We work the way a region actually works
Think about everything it takes for where you live to function — land and water, food and farming, housing and utilities, the materials and the businesses that turn them into something useful. These systems are deeply connected. They're just rarely supported as if they are. A bioregional approach starts there: with the whole, working region instead of its parts in isolation.
We invite you to watch a short video introducing Resilient Futures Co-Lab, the partners behind it, and first steps in learning in the region.
WHERE WE WORK
Rooted in the Mountain and Piedmont Region of North Carolina
Rooted in the the Mountain and Piedmont counties of North Carolina
Where our research, partnerships, and early microgrants are currently focused
Where We Work
We work across 59 counties, from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the eastern edge of the Piedmont — rural communities, towns, and cities alike. That's where our research, partnerships, and first microgrants are focused today. The scale isn't arbitrary: it mirrors how a real regional economy actually functions, across watersheds, supply chains, and the daily lives that connect rural and urban places.
WHY HERE
Large enough to matter, small enough to know
We started here because the region is big enough to matter at a systems level and small enough to know well. It sits within the broader bioregion of Southern Appalachia, where shared land, water, and economic ties run across state lines — and where post-Helene recovery is creating both real urgency and real opportunity. Our aim is to learn deeply here, build something that holds, and grow a model that can extend into neighboring regions over time.
Three ideas behind a bioregional approach
We look at the whole region, not the map.
We follow the natural and economic boundaries of a place — watersheds, supply chains, and cultural identity — rather than the political lines drawn on a map. Those lines rarely match how an economy or an ecosystem actually behaves.
We keep value where it's made.
Every region loses value it could keep: good jobs that move away, materials that get discarded, dollars that flow elsewhere. We look for where those losses happen — and where small, well-timed support could turn them around.
We build on what's already working.
Across the region, thousands of people are already building what a resilient economy needs – regenerative farms, worker-owned businesses, community land trusts, cooperatives, and forms of care and stewardship. We focus on listening to the work already underway and asking what's holding it back. Our job is to strengthen, connect, and resource what's working – and to help build the conditions, infrastructure, and capital that allow it to thrive together over time.
THE FOUNDATIONS
