March and April incubated seeds for all kinds of growth.  In every city there must be a planting tray where ideas germinate. At first, the seeds need a greenhouse to stay safe from wind and frost. They need sun and watering. Every idea that has accomplished social change has come out of planting soil that has been carefully tended. In my experience, I have found that the planting trays are usually tended by a strong woman gardener.

In Westfield, Massachusetts, the gardener for ideas is Ann Lentini. In Springfield the gardener is Morrell Thomas. Their greenhouses are Domus (Home), Inc. and Westcarb (West Indian Caribbean), Enterprises, Inc. They are vigilant in making their organizations strong enough to carry the weight of activism, but their expectation is clearly defined at the outset. They want ideas to sprout, and by summer, to survive on their own ability to feed people.

The idea of a preservation trades center has been germinating inside the greenhouses of Domus and Westcarb. In February Ms. Thomas adopted the Old Window Workshop idea and told me, “Get out there and do what you do well. Work for your passion and good will come of it.” She is a fiercely independent gardener. The idea of preservation services as part of her business model must survive through its own ability to deliver what people need, her customers, her workers and her business greenhouse.

Now little green specs in planting soil have let go tiny leaves that will soon be the size of your hand. Buds of color on trees and shrubs have begun to soften even the starkest city streets. Soon, the high schools will empty kids out on street corners with nothing to do. And the gardeners are expecting results from their patience.

My task: Build a greenhouse for preservation trades. Give women and out-of-school young people planting soil mix to learn how to preserve what is beautiful around them. Give them the hammer and putty knife to make a living and feed their families.

By springtime next year, millions and millions of dollars for restoration of Union Station and Court Square and even a big new casino will begin to trickle-down to construction contractors looking for proven workers. With this kind of watering can, even neighborhoods with the highest poverty rates in the country can become seed flats for all kinds of growth.

By summer next year, there will be fewer kids on street corners and women will be harvesting food from their own skills in preservation trades. Old windows–fresh food.

I want this blog to be useful to people who create jobs that build opportunities starting at the bottom rung of our economic system.  It is here that good jobs can create a more sustainable environment and simultaneously, a more just economy.

This letter is one that I wrote to thank the people who have supported me and the idea of Old Windows New Jobs during this first four years. 

Dear Ann, Ken, Rexene and Melinda, Jade Mortimer, Karen Ribeiro, Karen N., Jack G. and Fred Rose:

First of all, Happy 2013!  I hope your holidays were filled with joy, satisfying food and blessings deeply shared with family.

A new year is a good thing.  We all begin these with hope and determination—at least I do.  I feel wiser at the beginning of a new year than I do in the middle of it.  A new year is good for gleaning nuggets of wisdom based on things I tried to do the year, or years before.  January and February are like standing on a peak.  Everything is clear and the views are long.  I can see the path we’ve been walking on and I can see the next peak ahead although the terrain is not visible.

For me, the path we’ve shared started out in November of 2008 when, with the help of architect, Carole Vincze, I presented a paper at the International Greenbuild Conference in Boston, called “Global Warming and the Concentration of Poverty.”   7,000 people attended the conference.  Standing in front of 150 awake people from all over the country at 8:00 in the morning was terrifying.  The response I got during the Q & A was a turning point for me after years in construction.

You all, my trusted advisors, are the connection between heart and action. Jade, you introduced me to the integrity of natural materials and work by hand.  In my mind you set the standard for faithful historic preservation of windows.  When I began to think about the Roosevelt CCC idea that jobs could save the environment and decrease people’s suffering from poverty, Melinda Pellerin-Duck encouraged me first by connecting job training for inner-city women. Thank you for letting me know that educational institutions could be called upon.  Ann Lentini, my mentor, picked up, as you always do, when a good idea seems to be faultering for lack of know-how.  Thank you for leading the first public grant and recognition in Westfield.  Karen Ribeiro, you provided the impetus for the idea as a viable business prospect for women.  Thank you for making it real. Ken White, you perceived it and acted quickly in tangible ways to support the vision and helped me realize the idea for job creation had real currency.  Thank you for believing in it.  Rexene Picard, thank you for seeing the potential for creating jobs and for lending your workforce development perspective to those initial organizational efforts.  Karen N., you provided the example of re-purposing and heritage crafts as contemporary livelihood.  Thank you for cranking out the financials for Common Capital.  Jack, I thank you for your artist’s keen vision, your craftsman’s practicality and your critical insights.  Fred, thank you for telling me that I had a good story.  The concept of job creation as political action is empowering.

Some great things have happened since 2009.  Karen Ribeiro, her husband, Paul, Karen and Jack drew the outline of a production operation at the Westfield Energy Efficiency Trades Center.  When Sullivan Transportation needed their space back, I was prepared to relocate to a workshop space in Springfield in the heart of one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country—also rich in workforce history.

During the past two years, I’ve been inspired by women who fight daily to claim their place in a harsh economy.  {Women} have taught me that the idea of self-employment or cooperative worker-ownership is all well and good, but if there is no regular and adequate income, there is nothing.  The Trades Center first and then the Old Window Workshop have been a gift to introduce me to these great women.  I’m lucky to have had a year working with my hands and simple tools, with the heartwood of very old trees and with reflections of light surprising me from mouth-blown glass.

Every year flashes another beam of light on the path ahead. I feel like we have seen the child, the adolescent and now the young adult of this seed I think of as “old-windows-for-a-just-economy.”   Maturity will come when decision-makers see old buildings in “gateway cities” as a deep reservoir of natural resources to create jobs, save energy and save the planet by reducing, re-using and recycling.  We need to rely on what already exists, not create new things that cannot be repaired.  Economically, the goal of manufacturing is to “increase worker-productivity,” in other words, reduce labor costs.  Economically, the goal of preservation is to rely solely on labor.  We already have the materials.

Thank you.  Thank you. Thank you for sharing this with me.  I am forever indebted to you.

I would like to dedicate my next blog post to you using this letter.