Welcome to Civic Entrepreneur!

Greetings! My name is Josh Franco and I am the founder of Civic Entrepreneur! Welcome!

Civic Entrepreneur is a dream that embodies the dozens of books, the hundreds of people, and the thousands of ideas that I read, engaged and experienced throughout my life, especially while I was a full-time student at the University of California, Merced in the San Joaquin Valley.

The purpose of Civic Entrepreneur is to positively transform California's San Joaquin Valley by harnessing the creative ideas and entrepreneurial energies of the people who live, work and love the Valley. The core of this emerging network is the 1st public research institution of the 21st century: UC Merced. Opened in fall 2005, UC Merced is unlike any other university and it students, like myself, are energetic, entrepreneurial, and adventurous in nature.

The notion of Civic Entrepreneur was inspired by the book Civic Revolutionaries: Igniting the Passion for Change in America's Communities by Douglas Henton, John G. Melville, Kimberly A. Walesh of Collaborative Economics.

After reading Revolutionaries, I read Grassroots Leaders for a New Economy: How Civic Entrepreneurs Are Building Prosperous Communities by the same great authors. (It was nearly a year ago, in November 2006, when I had the opportunity to meet Doug and John at the Alliance for Regional Stewardship's 14th Annual National Forum in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They're great!)

Henton, Melville and Walesh, in Grassroots, describe civic entrepreneurs as individuals who "can forge powerfully productive linkages at the intersection of business, government, education, and community, operate at the grassroots level to create collaborative advantages and that make it possible for their economic communities to compete on the global stage." Civic Entrepreneur is about taking this idea and putting it into action!

Lastly, I believe the San Joaquin Valley is bubbling with individuals who recognize the importance of cooperation, collaboration, and creativity in today's increasingly interconnected world. The era of interconnectedness era calls for humans to evolve; and that's exactly what Civic Entrepreneur is setting out to do.