Defying Poverty with Bicycles

Defying Poverty with Bicycles lays out all the necessary steps for providing durable, affordable transportation bicycles and new careers to people who need them the most. It will give you the tools you need to create and manage a healthy, long-lasting organization as well as tips on designing your own bicycle community center that will become a focal point for your community. Beyond these important building blocks, you will also learn what it takes to design and manufacture bicycles for your program as you look ahead to creating bicycle art and machines run by pedal power. If you have ever watched as a bicycle transformed a struggling person's life or dreamed of creating a place where that magic happened for many people every day, this book will help you turn that dream into reality. "Defying Poverty with Bicycles is easy to read and inspiring. I especially like the way it addresses Social Bike Business as a means for directly opposing globalization, outsourcing, redlining, bias, discrimination and mass marketing for consumerism. It does an excellent job of presenting these harmful trends while sticking to the how-to steps of launching one of these programs to counteract them." - Dr. Paul Simpson, Centre Region Bicycle Coalition, State College, Pennsylvania, USA "Defying Poverty with Bicycles represents a powerful vision, thought through in careful detail. It pleases me to think of the many entrepreneurs who will be as inspired as I was reading through its content. It's really going to be an awesome resource for this new type of business!" - Stuart Shell, AIA, Community Bike Project Omaha, Nebraska, USA "I only wish I had had Defying Poverty with Bicycles at my disposal eight years ago! The writing style is very clear, concise and accessible. The content certainly rang true based on my experience and will be a great asset to start-ups and established entities alike." - Michael Linke, Bicycling Empowerment Network Namibia, Africa Sue Knaup discovered the magic bicycles can bring to people when she worked as a San Francisco bike messenger in the 1980s. She later opened her own bike shop, which she ran for 13 years. Finally, she tapped her more than 35 years working for and leading nonprofits to found One Street where nonprofit and business leaders come together to help people with bicycles.