Our Approach

Ecosystem‑based, emergent, and grounded in community.

Local Economic Futures Forum hosted by NLC

How We Work

Our work in Antioch was grounded in a few core approaches that helped a small team move multiple initiatives forward while staying accountable to community needs and long‑term systems change.

Ecosystem Building

Emergent Strategy

Community Engagement

Systems Thinking

Student Partnerships

Ecosystem Building

We treated Antioch’s economy as an ecosystem rather than a set of isolated projects. Instead of investing in a single program or sector, we advanced a diverse set of initiatives that interact and reinforce one another to grow local jobs.

To explain this approach, we used a native ecosystem metaphor:

Local jobs are the acorns: the fruit of our collective efforts.
Small business support is the fertilizer: strengthening the roots of existing and emerging enterprises.
Business associations are the mycelium: the underground network that connects businesses, shares information, and supports mutual growth.
Procurement excellence is the ground cover: keeping local dollars circulating in the community, preventing “nutrient runoff” to other places.
The medical workforce initiative is irrigation: redirecting the flow of workers from long commutes toward local employment opportunities.
Industrial zones and brownfield work are land remediation: literally and figuratively preparing ground for new economic activity.
The clean technology hub is the flowering plant: attracting “pollinators” (entrepreneurs and investors) to Antioch.

This metaphor helped stakeholders quickly see how each initiative connected to the others and where they might plug in, whether as partners, champions, or participants.

Emergent Strategy

As a two‑person team working in a city of more than 100,000 residents and advancing multiple initiatives at once, we relied on an emergent strategy approach, inspired in part by adrienne maree brown’s “Emergent Strategy.” We used biomimicry‑informed principles—nonlinear, responsive, iterative, and grounded in data and story—to move work forward with limited resources.

Nonlinear

Principle 1

We held a clear vision while planning only a few steps ahead at a time, leaving room for adjustment as projects intersected. Rather than create six separate plans for six initiatives, we focused on understanding the end goals of each, mapping short‑term actions, and watching for intersections.

For example, workforce development work in the medical sector and clean tech hub planning both led us to innovations in water use; pulling on that thread moved both initiatives forward simultaneously.

Community Engagement

The bedrock of our work was rebuilding and strengthening trust between local government, small businesses, and nonprofits. Our community engagement approach emphasized respect for residents’ time and lived experience, and clarity about how input would be used.

Key practices included:

Building Internal Awareness

We were explicit about our own strengths and gaps, talking frankly as a team about when we were the right people to lead and when it was better to partner or step back. This self‑awareness helped us avoid promising more than we could deliver and guided us toward the right messengers for different conversations.

Avoiding Engagement Fatigue

We were careful not to ask for input we could not act on. Before launching a survey or listening session, we clarified how responses would inform decisions and checked for duplicative efforts. We also helped community members understand what kinds of feedback (e.g., references to particular programs or budget categories) would make their input more actionable.

Making Space for Past Harm

We built time into meetings and informal gatherings for people to share previous frustrations and experiences with local systems. Allowing those stories to be aired without defensiveness helped clear space for new collaboration, and signaled that acknowledging history was part of moving forward.

Systems Thinking

We approached Antioch’s economy as an interconnected system, drawing on systems thinking frameworks such as those articulated by Donella Meadows. Rather than only treating symptoms, we looked for leverage points—places where strategic interventions could shift long‑term patterns.

In Antioch, the core leverage point we identified was the commute: roughly 90% of employed residents leave the city for work and spend a substantial portion of their budgets on transportation. This pattern contributes to talent drain, reduced local spending, environmental impacts, and low civic engagement, especially in communities already facing economic disadvantage.

We realized that the throughline connecting all fellowship initiatives was building local jobs. Local jobs are, in many ways, the opposite of a commute. By designing projects that collectively increase quality, “high‑road” employment opportunities in Antioch, we aimed to start reversing negative feedback loops, gradually increasing local spending, civic engagement, and sense of place. While full transformation will take years, the fellowship work set key gears in motion.

Economic Development Annual Report 2024.jpg

Antioch's commute is the result of urban planning that designated some communities as job centers, and others as commuter towns. Residents want a community where they can live and work.

Student Partnerships

Because the fellowship scope was broad and the Economic Development Division had only two staff members, partnerships were essential to moving the work forward. While neighboring jurisdictions, membership associations, and local businesses all played important roles, student partnerships were an often overlooked and particularly valuable part of our approach. Working with high school, college, and graduate students allowed us to extend the reach of the fellowship while giving students meaningful exposure to economic development practice.

High School Partnerships

Through the City of Antioch’s Springboard Internship program, organized by the Youth Services Network, we hosted five local high school interns across two summers. These students supported core departmental work, including data entry and analysis in the business database, outreach to businesses about city programs, industry data collection, and the creation of outreach and marketing materials. They also conducted informal interviews with family and friends about commuting patterns and career interests, helping us gather perspective while learning how to translate observations into useful information.

For many of these students, this was their first office job and their first exposure to city government. In addition to contributing to essential departmental tasks, they learned professional skills, gained insight into how local government operates, and began thinking strategically about future career pathways.

Springboard Internship

College Partnerships

Although we did not host a formal college internship cohort, we did engage with students at Cal State East Bay by presenting a guest lecture in an economic development course. The students were highly engaged, asked thoughtful questions, and followed up afterward to continue conversations about their own career interests.

Economic development is not always visible to students as a potential career path, so these conversations created an important bridge between classroom learning and real-world practice. They also helped introduce Antioch’s work to future professionals who may go on to shape cities and regions elsewhere.

CSU East Bay

Graduate School Partnerships

Gaby’s enrollment in the MBA/MPA program at Presidio Graduate School helped lay the groundwork for a sustained partnership with the school. Presidio, part of the University of Redlands, brings together students from around the world to study sustainable business practices and applied problem-solving. Several of its courses include experiential learning projects in which student teams provide research and recommendations to real clients.

Over two years, we hosted five student teams, each focused on a different topic that represented a meaningful opportunity for Antioch but was beyond our internal capacity to research independently. These projects included:

Community Microgrid Feasibility Study
Medical Innovation District Marketing Plan
Clean Technology Attraction Playbook
Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District Formation Guide
Childcare for Economic Mobility Landscape Analysis

These projects were selected because they aligned with the school’s mission, the students’ interests, and Antioch’s strategic priorities. Each one provided a third-party perspective that helped us better evaluate whether and how to invest further. Because the students were not employees or direct stakeholders, they were often able to offer clearer, less biased insights that improved our decision-making. The partnership also strengthened the relationship between Antioch and Presidio, leading to additional speaking invitations and classroom engagement.

Presidio Graduate School

Our Student Partners

Thank you to the students whose research, curiosity, and care supported this work. Their contributions helped us test ideas, sharpen strategies, and move important initiatives forward.

Al Park

Graduate Researcher

Graduate Researcher

Violetta Tutunik

Graduate Researcher

Wyatt Moore

Graduate Researcher

Yuliana Luna

Springboard Intern