Understand Your Community Economy. Make Better Decisions. Strengthen Your Community.
From Everyday Citizens to Community Economists
Helping everyday citizens become community economists—equipped to understand how their local economy works and use that understanding to guide real decisions.
What Is Everydaynomics®?
A Practical Way to Understand Your Community Economy
Everydaynomics is a practical framework for understanding how community economies actually work—how resources, industries, and institutions come together to generate income, opportunity, and well-being.
It helps individuals and communities move from simply observing economic conditions to understanding them—and using that understanding to make better decisions.
Why This Matters
Most Communities Make Economic Decisions Without Full Understanding
What You’ll Learn
Build the Skills to Understand and Act
Participants learn how to:
- Understand how your community economy is structured
- Identify where income and opportunity come from
- Recognize strengths, gaps, and risks
- Evaluate economic decisions and investments
- Use data to inform real-world action
The Core Everydaynomics® Program
A structured, guided learning experience designed to help participants understand and apply community economics in real-world settings.
Program Structure (26 Total Hours)
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12 hours — On-demand learning
Self-paced video modules covering the foundations of the community economy -
12 hours — Live virtual review sessions
One-hour guided sessions per module to deepen understanding, review concepts, and support application -
2 hours — Presentation & certification
Presentation of your Community Economic Profile (CEP) and recognition as a Community Economist
Designed for People Working in Communities
- Local government leaders and staff
- Economic development professionals
- Nonprofit organizations
- Educators and students
- Business leaders and entrepreneurs
- Engaged residents
No economics background is required.
Unit I: Introduction to Community Economics
You’ll learn key definitions and terminology used in community economics, along with unique intersections with agriculture, cooperative extension, economics, and environmental resilience. You’ll learn about logic models and the wealth-creation/wealth-building approach to community economics, and gain mastery of tools such as community impact assessment, cross-sectional, and time-series data analysis.
Module 1. Understanding Your Local Economy
Module 2. Is Your Community or Village Being Strategic?
Module 3. Condition and Performance of Your Local Economy
Unit II. Local Engines of Growth and Development
You’ll be able to identify local strengths and local/regional market opportunities by understanding the industry structure and occupation mix of your community. You’ll learn how anchor institutions like HBCUs and cooperatives can be local engines of economic mobility, growth, and development. Using local farms and food systems as the example, you will learn about supply chains, value chains, and location quotients.
Module 4. Understanding Local Supply, Demand, and Industrial Structure
Module 5. Identifying Local Strengths
Module 6. Identifying Market Opportunities
Unit III: Keeping Wealth, Income and Jobs Local
You’ll learn how to identify exporting and importing industries, determine the competitiveness of local farms/firms, and their capacity to meet local and nonlocal demand. You’ll learn about industry and occupation clusters and whether or not your community is ready for the knowledge economy and innovation by understanding how to interpret your community’s innovation index.
Module 7. Exporting and Importing Industries
Module 8. Cluster Mapping
Module 9. Your Community’s Innovation Capacity
Unit IV: Telling Your Community’s Economic Story
You’ll learn how to tell your community’s economic story by understanding economic impact, identifying your at-risk populations and neighborhoods, and examining public spending (such as the Farm Bill and federal commissions and authorities). You’ll be exposed to economic impact analysis and GIS spatial analysis.
Module 10. Measuring impact
Module 11. At-risk populations and neighborhoods
Module 12. Public spending
Unit V: Presentation and Certification
For groups of 30 or more, you’ll present your Community Economists Plan (CEP) for your community and receive your certification as a Community Economist and a graduate of the Institute.
Become a Community Economist. Strengthen Your Community.
Start building your understanding of the community economy—and your ability to shape it.
Community Economics Meets Farm Economics
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15 Hours On-Demand Virtual Recorded Training
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The Core Everydaynomics™ Program
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1-Page Community Economists Plan (CEP)
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Community Economist Certificate With Specialization in Farm Economics
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Live Office Hours via Zoom only for groups of 30 or more
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Presentation and Graduation Ceremony only for groups of 30 or more
Core Program
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12 Hours Virtual Recorded Training
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The Core Everydaynomics™ Program
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1-Page Community Economists Plan (CEP)
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Community Economists Certificate
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Live Office Hours via Zoom only for groups of 30 or more
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Presentation and Graduation Ceremony only for groups of 30 or more
Multi-Stakeholder Cooperatives
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7 hours On-Demand Virtual Recorded Training
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Multi-Stakeholder Certificate of Completion
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Live Office Hours via Zoom only for groups of 30 or more
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Presentation and Graduation Ceremony only for groups of 30 or more
Get ready to initiate a
community economic development
strategy that makes sense
for your
local economy.
Become a 21st Century Community Economist and transform your community.
Our Generous Sponsors
Enviva
World's largest producer of wood pellets, a renewable alternative to coal.
