Center For Economic Options

CEO's Showcase West Virginia model continues to serve as an enterprise catalyst.

Showcase West Virginia was developed as a social purpose model to serve as a marketplace for a wide selection of fine locally-made merchandise.

During the seven years that CEO operated and refined the enterprise, we generated revenue and tapped a variety of new markets for nearly 450 rural entrepreneurs. The model also created significant public appreciation for locally-made products and small-scale manufacturing and artisan businesses.

Showcase West Virginia is demonstrating an additional major benefit: local private and non profit businesses are adapting and replicating portions of the model to help grow and sustain their businesses. Numerous products that were once only available at Showcase West Virginia are now sold by locally-owned boutique stores throughout the city and surrounding area.

Additional stores are exploring options for adding a locally-made component to their product offering.

The success of Showcase West Virginia continues into the future.

Support Local, Sustainable Enterprise!

Center for Economic Options (CEO)

910 Quarrier Street, Suite 206

Charleston, West Virginia 25301 U.S.A.

Hours: 8:30 am - 4:30 pm, EST

Phone: (304) 345-1298

Email: info@economicoptions.org

The Center for Economic Options (CEO) is an independent non profit organization in West Virginia. CEO works with entrepreneurs and innovators who share a commitment to development that is socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.

Our main program strategy is to serve as a catalyst for local "green business" activity. These green businesses are environmentally-friendly and are not limited to any particular market. They conserve natural resources, eliminate waste and remain ecologically in balance. They also offer opportunities for people be business owners and/or to be employed in green collar jobs.

Through past years CEO primarily served rural small scale manufacturers, specialty farm entrepreneurs, and artisans and have a long and successful history of related enterprise development.

CEO is a founding member of the Central Appalachian Network (CAN) which is a collaboration of eight non profit organizations working toward environmentally, economically, and socially sound community sustainable development. CAN is moving forward to increase the impact and potential benefits for this regional work. A recent publication Building Sustainable Economies in a Shrinking World provides details.

CEO demonstrates creativity, commitment, and leadership in rural entrepreneurial development in West Virginia. Some acknowledgements include: