The United States is facing a moment of potential: If we can dedicate resources to rebuilding and sustaining manufacturing ecosystems, it will propel our country and citizens into a more accessible and dependable future. At UMA, we believe equitable, interconnected, and sustainable manufacturing ecosystems can build wealth in under-resourced communities, respond to climate change and circular economic challenges, and create racial and gender economic equality, making our neighborhoods, cities, and even our nation, more resilient. The past few years have shown us how central manufacturing is to our daily lives – in both good and challenging ways. From supply chain disruptions and material shortages, to creating a sense of place and providing family-sustaining jobs, it has become clear that manufacturing deserves attention and support.
The Urban Manufacturing Alliance with our local host, the West Houston Institute housed at Houston Community College, invites you to our 2022 Gathering in Houston to explore how workforce development, supply chains, product development, real estate policies and entrepreneurial ecosystems can impact and increase manufacturing ecosystem activities and build resilient communities and regions. UMA’s Gathering, Manufacturing Resilience: Ecosystem Strategies for Building Community, will lift up the work of Houston-based practitioners and businesses, and our national network of manufacturing practitioners. UMA will showcase leaders, policies, and initiatives that promote small- and large-scale manufacturing as resiliency strategies – and use Houston’s many diverse neighborhoods as a backdrop for conversation. As a community, during the Gathering, we will all learn how to better support local efforts and scale their success.
Meet the Partners
About West Houston Institute
The West Houston Institute is Houston Community College’s hub for strategic innovation. Conceived collaboratively by faculty and staff across the institution and by our local community, the Institute opened in Spring 2018 with a vision to reimagine and reinvent higher education by providing students and the community with the essential mindsets and skill sets needed to thrive today. The West Houston Institute offers several signature programs to accomplish this, including IDEAS Academy, Innovation Fellows, Teaching Innovation Lab, and our Learning Spaces Institute. We also offer unique educational spaces in support of creativity and collaboration including IDEAStudio, a 10,000 square foot makerspace, the Collaboratorium, a solution design center, Learning Commons, our vision for the modern library, and advanced science labs and research space for life and physical sciences. WHI also has a state of the art conference space utilized by both internal and external clients throughout the year.
About UMA and the Gathering Approach
The Urban Manufacturing Alliance (UMA) is a national coalition of manufacturing practitioners working together to grow more equitable and prosperous economies in cities by building robust, sustainable, and inclusive urban manufacturing sectors. As an organization, UMA advances place-based strategies that create more equitable communities by building wealth through employment, ownership, and entrepreneurship; connects and convenes 900+ members across 250+ cities, helping them learn from one another; and acts as a collaborative ecosystem builder that builds up local manufacturing communities and a national movement. We have held Gatherings where hundreds of manufacturing practitioners have come together in Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Somerville, Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee to develop new policies and share ideas to support the resurgence of manufacturing in American cities. Our Gatherings serve as an opportunity to create a more interconnected urban manufacturing ecosystem: from makers and manufacturers, to those who support their work in municipal government, faith-based networks, workforce nonprofits, business organizations and academic institutions. Past sponsors have included Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, the Surdna Foundation, Bank of America, BLOCK, Esri, and more.