This Sharing SLO page gives an overview of some of San Luis Obispo’s sharing economy.

Every town has a “Sharing Economy,” which sometimes goes by names like “caring economy,” “solidarity economy,” “transition,” and “community resilience.” There are currently movements afoot around the world to try to organize local sharing economies and help them to grow and thrive. Elements of the sharing economy include:

  1. Making / Repurposing / Repairing / Recycling Things
  2. Food & Garden
  3. People Helping People
  4. Sharing Economy Entrepreneurs & Experiments
  5. Environmental Protection
  6. Commons and Public Spaces
  7. Skills-Sharing & Education
  8. Neighborhood and Common Interest Groups
  9. Health & Fitness
  10. Transportation
  11. Public & Local Media
  12. Legal Assistance & Mediation
  13. Free Public Events and Activities
  14. Housing
  15. …and more!

Making / Repurposing / Repairing / Recycling Things

  • Bike Kitchen — bicycle maintenance education, parts recycling and do-it-yourself work
  • E-Waste Fundraiser — let young techies repurpose your obsolete electronics
  • iFixit — creates and hosts open-source repair documentation and produces how-to repair videos
  • Recycled Building Materials — Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Box Kite Barnyard, SLO Green Build, Pacific Coast Lumber
  • SLO Freecycle — keeping stuff out of landfills while building a sense of community
  • SLO MakerSpace — an open, collaborative shop and idea laboratory where people can make their projects
  • Studio Stitch — learn fabric arts skills (e.g. sewing) in workshops and classes
  • Thrift Stores — giving used but usable clothes and goods a second chance

Food & Garden

Mostly Food & Beverage

Mostly Farm & Garden

People Helping People

  • 100+ Women Who Care — pools charitable donations to make a large local impact
  • 5 Cities Homeless Coalition — channeling community resources, volunteers, and donor assets to meet the needs of the homeless population through existing and new programs
  • 70 Now — provides homes and crucial services for chronically homeless people
  • Assistance League — clothing for schoolchildren in need
  • SLO Big Brothers / Big Sisters — helps vulnerable children of single, low-income, and/or incarcerated parents succeed through one-to-one relationships
  • CASA — advocates for the best interests of abused and neglected children within the court system
  • Catholic Charities — family supportive services program
  • Central Coast Assistive Technology Center — assistive technology services and ergonomic training
  • Central Coast Coalition for Undocumented Student Success — supports undocumented students in our region
  • Central Coast Commission for Senior Citizens — funnels taxpayer money to various local programs for seniors
  • Central Coast Community Volunteers — matches locals aged 50 and above with local volunteering opportunities
  • (defunct) The Common Good — discover opportunities to do good locally
  • Community Action Partnership — provides and/or coordinates services for financially struggling people in SLO county
  • ECHO — El Camino Homeless Organization, a shelter located in Atascadero, with associated services
  • Family Care Network Inc. — serving children and families affected by trauma
  • Grassroots II — helps San Luis Obispo residents in need
  • Habitat for Humanity — builds and renovates homes to improve communities by partnering with families in need
  • HelpSLO — a network for connecting people who need help with people who can help
  • Hospice SLO — no one should have to face death, serious illness or grief by themselves
  • Homeless Services Oversight Council — ensure that everyone has access to appropriate and affordable housing
  • Independent Living Resource Center — promotes independent living and full access for individuals with disabilities
  • Life Steps Foundation — meets the health, psychological, and socioeconomic challenges of people who are experiencing mental, developmental, or physical disabilities
  • Long Term Care Ombudsman — an advocate for the welfare of people living in nursing or residential care facilities
  • Los Osos Cares — food, health, housing, and transportation help for people in the Estero Bay community
  • Love SLO — a one-day event that matches a mass of volunteers with short-term volunteering needs
  • Luminaprovides services to empower Central Coast residents impacted by sexual and intimate partner violence
    • RISE — provides crisis intervention and treatment to survivors of sexual and intimate partner violence and their loved ones (now part of Lumina)
    • Stand Strong — assists those local victims of domestic violence who are women (now part of Lumina)
  • Morph Project — helping women in crisis feel beautiful again
  • PathPoint — helps people with disabilities or mental health diagnoses to build life skills and develop meaningful relationships
  • Prado Day Center — the only day center serving the homeless population in the region
  • Project Hope and Fairness — improves the economic and environmental sustainability of cocoa farmers
  • Restorative Partners — improving the lives of people impacted by the criminal justice system
  • Shower the People — brings mobile shower trailers to homeless people to serve them where they live
  • SLO Red Cross — responds to disasters, provides lifesaving education, helps families prepare for emergencies, and keeps members of the Armed Forces connected with their loved ones
  • RSVP — Retired and Senior Volunteer Program
  • Senior Volunteer Services — promotes volunteer opportunities for mature adults & matches their experience, knowledge, and expertise to serve local community needs
  • SLO4Home — helping Afghan refugees establish new lives and livelihoods on the Central Coast
  • SLO Village — empowers older adults to live happily, healthfully, and successfully in their own homes as they age
  • Student Community Services — community-oriented volunteer projects for Cal Poly students
  • The Teen's Closet — offers free clothing, school supplies, and basic resources for teen-sized youth
  • Tri County GLAD — serves the deaf and hard of hearing
  • Tri-Counties Regional Center — provides lifelong services and supports for people with developmental disabilities
  • UndocuSupport — helps undocumented and other immigrant families in SLO County
  • Volunteer SLO — the volunteer resource for SLO County
  • SLO Womenade — a network that donated items, time, and money to meet unmet financial essential needs in the county
  • Wilshire Community Services — offers a variety of services to older people

Sharing Economy Entrepreneurs & Experiments

B-Corporations

Credit Unions

Worker-owned Cooperatives

Cottage food producers

  •  — 

Renewable and Off-the-Grid Energy Providers

  •  — 

Environmental Protection

Commons and Public Spaces

Skills-Sharing & Education

Neighborhood and Common Interest Groups

Religious Groups

  • Front Porch — it's a cafe, it's a Christian outreach opportunity, it's free of charge

Support Groups

Fraternal Organizations

  • Cacophony Society — subverts the mundane and plays the knee-jerk reactions of the populace like a pipe organ
  • Fraternities — Cal Poly's communal living and mutual benefit societies
  • Rotary — fosters the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise
  • Xi Sigma Pi — Cal Poly's forestry honors society

Health & Fitness

  • Access Support Network — assisting our neighbors, friends and families who are living with HIV disease / AIDS or Hep-C
  • Coast Caregiver Resource Center — resources and assistance for people who care for people with brain injuries
  • Community Counseling Center — provides short-term, low-cost, professional counseling for individuals, couples and families who would not otherwise be able to afford it
  • Community Health Centers — enhances the health status of people in the Central Coast of California, with special emphasis on the medically underserved
  • Fitness Court — free outdoor fitness equipment and a self-guided course
  • Jack's Helping Hand — provides community programs that meet the unique challenges of children with cancer or special needs
  • Low-Cost Yoga — free and very-low-cost yoga classes in SLO
  • Noor Foundation — high quality free healthcare to uninsured people living within our community
  • Planned Parenthood — combines medical services with education and public advocacy to enhance the quality of life for individuals and their families
  • Pregnancy & Parenting Support  — provides free services for local women, their infants, and families during pregnancy and for a year after birth
  • RunFreeSLO — connects those who are experiencing ​life's challenges with the power of running
  • Riso Family Loan Closet — short-term loans of durable medical equipment
  • SLO Bangers — syringe-exchange program
  • SLO Street Medics — emergency medical staff, caregivers, first responders, and friends who want to keep people as safe as possible in the chaos of political action
  • Transitions-Mental Health Association — dedicated to eliminating stigma and promoting recovery and wellness for people with mental illness
  • Vita Fitness Course — a course around Meadow Park that has stations set up for fitness exercises
  • YMCA — helps you develop your mind, body, and spirit in a relaxed atmosphere that makes everyone feel comfortable and welcome

Transportation

  • Bike SLO County — transforms San Luis Obispo County into a safer and more livable community by promoting biking and walking
  • Cal Poly Bicycle Coalition — promotes and advocates for a better pedestrian and bicycling atmosphere at Cal Poly
  • Ride-On — provides door-to-door transportation 24 hours a day every day with advance reservations
  • Rideshare — promotes alternative modes of transportation such as biking, carpooling, or taking the bus
  • SLO Safe Ride — facilitates safe transportation for people at events that facilitate inebriation
  • SLO Transit — bus service in the San Luis Obispo area

Public & Local Media

  • Amateur Radio — the local ham radio scene
  • Blogs — do you know of a blog that covers the local scene? list it here.
  • Cal Coast News — cranky, cantankerous, a thorn in the side of the local political establishment
  • HopeDance — a local take on the latest in the left-leaning idealistic harmonic convergence zeitgeist
  • KCBX public radio — the local NPR affiliate
  • News by the People — reporting contributed directly to this wiki
  • wikiSLO — you’re soaking in it

Legal Assistance & Mediation

  • SLO ACLU — protecting what's left of civil rights in America, locally
  • California Rural Legal Assistance — a nonprofit legal services program that strives for economic justice and human rights on behalf of California's rural poor
  • Creative Mediation — provides dispute resolution services to individuals and organizations as a low-cost alternative to filing a suit in court or to resolve suits already filed
  • SLO Legal Assistance Foundation — provides and promotes affordable legal-aid services, assistance in self-representation, and conflict resolution for low and moderate income individuals
  • SLO Solutions — offers free conflict resolution services to all San Luis Obispo residents

Free Public Events and Activities

  • Concerts in the Plaza — a series of a free, two-hour Summer evening concerts in beautiful Mission Plaza
  • Disc Golfing — local, public disc golfing courses
  • Free Events — some of the many free events in the SLO area
  • Geocaching — a GPS-based treasure hunt for hidden containers containing some sort of surprise
  • Lunchtime Bocce — free, Thursdays at noon, Emerson Park, all ages
  • Write-A-Thon — spread the word and create content for this wiki

Bike Events

  • Bike Breakfasts — a part of Rideshare's "Bike Month" that features free breakfasts for bicyclers
  • Bike Happening —  a monthly night-time bike ride through downtown SLO on the first Thursday of every month
  • Bike-in Movie — a free, family-friendly event put on by Rideshare as a part of Bike Month
  • Bike Month — an annual event celebrating bicycling in San Luis Obispo
  • Full Moon Bike Rides — if you know the right people, you’ll be invited
  • Little 500 — a bike race that happens a few times a year around the Terrace Hill Loop
  • Tweed Ride — a leisurely bike ride where cyclists are expected to dress in traditional early 20th century attire

Housing

  • Community Living — communes, co-housing, and people who happen to share the same roof
  • HomeShare SLO — matches home providers (seniors with an extra room) with home seekers (people who need a room)
  • Hope’s Village — hopes to provide sustainable community living for local unhoused adults in a tiny house village
  • People's Self-Help Housing — provides affordable housing, home-ownership opportunities, and housing counseling services
  • RVs for Veterans — links donors of campers and other such inhabitable recreational vehicles with homeless veterans who need a place to live
  • SLO Housing Connection — aids people who are homeless and have exhausted standard available resources
  • SLO Housing Trust Fund — more affordable housing in San Luis Obispo County for low and moderate income households
  • Sunny Acres — provides a clean and sober environment for those with drug and alcohol addictions
  • The Lavra — an intentional community of people dedicated to discovering new ways of interdependent living
  • Tiny House Consulting — getting tiny homes on wheels in SLO city backyards as housing for low income residents
  • Waterman Village — a tiny-house village being planned at the site of a historic adobe in San Luis Obispo

Miscellany