Trust, Technology, and Gourmet Dog Biscuits: A Discussion with Amy Borgstrom of ACEnet

Introduction
Amy Borgstrom's path to the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks, or ACEnet, started in a moment of serendipity. Amy had come to Appalachia in 1976 to attend college and ended up working in a Mexican restaurant called Casa Que Pasa. One night, the owner ran off to escape mounting debts and Amy and her co-workers pooled their resources in an attempt to keep the restaurant running. Amy enlisted the help of a regional organization that helped to develop worker-owned cooperatives. This group would eventually become ACEnet.
Amy and Casa Que Pasa eventually parted company. "I realized that I enjoyed setting up a restaurant more than actually running one," she admits. However, her connection with ACEnet has been a lasting one. She served as a board member and later was hired on as a grant writer and marketing specialist. Now, she is ACEnet's executive director.

The ACEnet web site describes the organization this way: "ACEnet is a community-based economic development organization located in rural, southeastern Ohio. Our purpose is to work with others in the area to create a healthy regional economy with many successful businesses and good jobs. Our goal is for people with low incomes to move out of poverty permanently through employment or business ownership."

Recently, I had the chance to talk with Amy about her experiences in Appalachia, and the role that ACEnet plays in that community. Here is some of what we discussed:

Building Trust
Although Amy has lived and worked in Appalachia since 1976, she does not feel that trust from the life-long members of her community is a given: "I came here over twenty years ago and, in a sense, I'm still an outsider." She explains that there is distrust for strangers in the region for a good reason. Outsiders--she cites absent landlords and coal mining companies as examples--have damaged the local economy by putting things in place and then simply leaving. In addition, people from the outside have often treated community members in a demeaning manner. Therefore, wariness serves as a defense here and people tend to reserve their trust for members of their family and local community. According to Amy, it is the responsibility of outsiders to become aware of and sensitive to the needs of the community and adapt to them: "If you go into a group setting with an agenda and try to run a meeting as you would in New York or LA, it won't work. People around here use social situations--community festivals, ice cream socials--as an opportunity to get to know you." These are casual--yet crucial--interactions.

Joint Design
The people at ACEnet are strong believers in the joint design concept, where all the necessary stakeholders are brought together to work on an idea. For example, ACEnet has been working on establishing a sectorial loan fund, as access to capital is a major challenge in the region. To get things moving, ACEnet brought together bankers, low-income residents interested in getting loans to start businesses, and established business people to consider the idea. Amy notes that one of ACEnet's role in such interactions is to act as a facilitator: "We try to ensure that the least enfranchised people in the group, who are also the key stakeholders in the project, get the chance to speak first and most often. It is important that they have control over the process."

The Power of a Physical Place
ACEnet has embraced technology as a means of economic empowerment for the residents of Appalachian communities. In fact, one of their recent initiatives--Computer Opportunities Program--trains people to become computer consultants. Still, Amy feels that one of the most important things that ACEnet offers to the community is decidedly more low tech. "There is a power in having a physical place," she asserts. ACEnet's facilities serve as a location where people can gather to share ideas and leverage each other's experience. It is Amy's belief that when a microbusiness meets with others to discuss strategy it is able to accomplish much more than it would in isolation. For example, when several small businesses find that they need the same supplies--such as flour or jars--meeting in the same physical location means that it is easier for them to work in concert, purchasing large amounts together and taking advantage of the economies of scale. Similarly, meeting in the same space has helped to spur on packaging ideas. Amy recalls one instance where several business owners collaborated to spruce up the packaging of some locally-produced gourmet dog biscuits: "The change was incredible. We even took 'before' and 'after' photos." This one seemingly isolated event has created a ripple effect that has affect a number of local businesses for the better. More product packages are now being designed in conjunction with local graphic designers with impressive results.

It is interesting to note that the partnerships that have been formed in these meetings have generally been organic in nature. As Amy puts it, "At first, I expected that ACEnet would be assisting businesses in establishing formal legal partnerships. Instead, we have found that we're able to provide a physical place where more casual arrangements could develop. Generally, we don't engineer these partnerships; we facilitate them."

The shared space at ACEnet also offers local firms access to business and computer equipment, a Community Kitchen Incubator facility, and more.

Success Stories
By combining a shared space, the concept of joint design, and business training, ACEnet has helped to develop a wide variety of local firms, including furniture, food, and computer entrepreneurs. Here are just two of the many success stories:

Frog Ranch Food is the maker of award-winning gourmet hot sauces. Its presence in Glouster, OH--and the hot sauce festival it inspired there--is a source of pride to the community. Meanwhile, Chris Chmiel's Pawpaw Express focuses on making food products based on this indigenous fruit, which has a flavor that is a cross between a mango and a banana. Chmiel encourages low-income residents to pick pawpaws and bring them to him for processing. He then sells pawpaw products to restaurants both in the Appalachian region and on the East Coast.

These successes demonstrate another of Amy's firmly-held beliefs: "We place a relentless emphasis on the power of markets to transform people's lives." And technology lends a hand here as well. As Amy notes, "The Internet levels the playing field in the marketplace. It helps smaller businesses compete."

To learn more about ACEnet, please visit their web site.