On April 8, Newporters had a chance to hear how one visionary can make a huge
difference in the wellbeing of an island community.
In an event co-hosted by
RENEWport and Salve Regina University, Newfoundlander Zita Cobb, entrepreneur
and CEO of the Shorefast Foundation, told her inspiring story, “A Framework for
Community Economic Stewardship: Learnings from Fogo Island.” Cobb’s childhood
home, Fogo Island is a traditional Newfoundland fishing community whose economy
was almost entirely destroyed by industrial cod fishing. But Cobb and her Shorefast
Foundation invested in restoring the community, relying on sound Asset-Based
Community Development strategies that Newporters can learn from as we seek ways
to ensure that all our residents can thrive.
At the heart of Shorefast’s success in rebuilding Fogo Island is the importance of place, from local ownership to culturally authentic enterprises—a focus on celebrating what makes one’s home distinctive.
Transparency is also essential, and the businesses that Cobb and her colleagues helped
launch readily share with the public their “Economic Nutrition” labels, which
provides data such as the percentage of the enterprise’s cashflow that remains in the
community.
To be sure, Fogo Island’s population and economic scale are substantially smaller
than ours, but the keys to community flourishing are much the same. To learn more
about the Fogo Island story, see the Zita Cobb’s presentation “Design in Service of
Place: Community Business on Fogo Island,” available on YouTube.
Jere Wells
