Eleven diverse regions across California have come together to launch the California Stewardship Network, developing innovative regional solutions to the state’s most pressing economic, environmental, and community challenges. These solutions require “breakthrough innovation” driven by a “new generation” of civic entrepreneurs—diverse regional teams composed of both established and emerging leaders.
Stewardship is the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to us. This Network focuses on the “stewardship of place”—which requires attention to the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of a region.
Civic entrepreneurs are individuals who see an opportunity for change, and bring the same passion and persistence to community problem solving that business entrepreneurs bring to building new ventures. They mobilize teams and collaborate across boundaries to address interrelated economic, environmental, and social challenges. They come from all walks of life—from the business, public, labor, and non-profit sectors. While they have been responsible for important advances in California’s regions over the last decade, it is an enduring challenge to grow and replenish the pool of civic entrepreneurs in a strategic and systematic fashion. Civic entrepreneurs are individuals whose focus is stewardship, whose approach is collaboration, and whose outcomes are innovative solutions.
In 2008, The Morgan Family Foundation committed $1.5 million to seed this network and create a new focus on regional partnerships throughout California.
