Our Work

Main Street Media Desk

The nation’s most trusted messengers telling the real
story of the economy.

    • Train 1,000 Main Street Messengers in media and policy basics

    • Produce op-eds, LTEs, interviews, podcasts, and digital stories

    • Run rapid-response efforts that correct misinformation

    • Highlight small business testimony in legal and regulatory actions

    • Diversify the public voice on economic issues beyond the Chamber narrative

The Media Desk trains small business owners to share their lived experience and bring accuracy and credibility into economic debates. Our messengers respond quickly to misinformation, ground policy conversations in real life, and broaden who speaks for Main Street.

1,000 Main Streets

Turning local businesses into civic spaces that bring people back into public life.

1,000 Main Streets transforms storefronts into civic hubs where people can learn, connect, and register to vote. Organizer-champions host community meet-ups and listening sessions that make civic participation easy and personal.

    • Nonpartisan voter registration and education in trusted local spaces

    • Organizing for Power Meet-Ups that unite small business owners and working families

    • Listening sessions that surface shared concerns and build community connection

    • Candid Conversations webinar series with policy explainers and elected leaders

    • A growing network of 1,000 civic-ready storefronts across the country

Learn more

Care Is Capital

Advancing care policies by showing their direct impact on local economies.

Our care advocacy work highlights how childcare, paid leave, and healthcare shape the survival of small businesses and the strength of local communities. We connect economic data with lived experience to build support for policies that help families and entrepreneurs thrive.

  • Federal: elected education and small business testimony in Congress that highlights the local economic impact of ACA subsidy cuts and the gutting of our care infrastructure

  • Minnesota: paid leave implementation support and education targeting Black, Brown and immigrant business owners; in partnership with DEED and ISAIAH

  • Virginia: paid leave elected education and engagement

  • Iowa: healthcare advocacy in the state where gutted care infrastructure has stymied economic vitality

  • New York: coalition strategy and listening sessions focused on universal childcare