WHO WE'RE LOOKING FOR
People with knowledge and experience
We work across four transition pathways: circular materials and industry, real estate and affordable living, food, agriculture and resilient ecosystems, and health and wellness. If you know one of these systems in this region, including where it gets stuck, we would like to hear from you.
That might be a material or a process you know from the inside, a plant, farm, or service you have run, or the standards, finance, and land-use rules that decide what is possible here.
Some of the most useful knowledge sits across Themes: government and policy, capital flows, networks and relationships.
What we're asking of you
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A few hours, a few times a year. We host several types of convenings to gather and share input. Where your expertise and interests align, we will invite you, and you can choose to attend. Now and then, we workshop specific questions that sit inside one area of expertise.
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If you want to go further. Some people offer more than input. They give time to something concrete, speak to the work in their own networks, or bring funding and a mandate of their own where the overlap with ours is generative. Where you are in a position to offer it, we welcome it, and we will scope it with you so expectations are clear on all sides.
What you get back
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A view of the more holistic system. We intentionally bring people together to openly share in a room around a whole system. Our convenings are designed to offer a more holistic viewpoint of the wider dynamics at play.
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Peers you may not otherwise meet. We convene peers across sectors and across the region. You will likely meet new people with whom to collaborate.
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Insights into the transition in progress. We provide regular updates inside a convening on what we are building, bringing you along on the transition in progress.
KEEP THIS IN MIND
How we most often engage
Most often, we request your attendance at a convening to share your expertise based on where your experience and interest in the initiative aligns or we may request your direct input through a call.
This means your expertise may not match where we are at right now. Don't worry - we will keep you on the list and invite you when it does.
INTRODUCTIONS
Tell us about yourself.
Takes about two minutes to complete. This is the same form everyone fills in.
OCTOBER 2025 ASHEVILLE
The transition pathway workshop
A room of practitioners, researchers, funders, public-sector staff, and others spent a day mapping different parts of the regional economy: what is working, what is not, and what we might do together to transition into a more prosperous and connected regional economy. What resulted fromt he workshop shaped the beginning stages of our four transition pathways.
As an example, numerous individuals offered their experience in the food system in Western North Carolina, helping to shape the Regenerative Food, Forestry, and Land transition pathway and begin to seed what a cluster of initiatives coming together might look like.