BALLE Fellows Explore Cincinnati Local Economy Ecosystem

In addition to leadership development programming, the 2016 Fellows toured Derrick’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, visited Our Harvest Urban Farm, met with local officials, and had a meal served by a graduate of the accelerator program, Mortar, that Derrick co-founded. Every Fellowship immersion takes place in or near the home city of one of the Fellows. This allows each cohort to see local economy ecosystems at work in communities other than their own and leverages the deep connections of local Fellows to foster understanding, inspiration, and new relationships in each community visited. These visits invite reflections on Fellows’ own communities, begin conversations around how solutions might be adapted in other places, reinforce the idea that our struggles are shared, and remind us that, truly, we are all in this together.