WITH RHODE ISLAND’S economy in recession, joblessness approaching double digits and our small businesses bearing the brunt of the downturn, we all have a role to play in pulling our state out of its current economic decline.

As we near the peak of the holiday shopping season, one immediate step we can all take is to make a conscious effort to support locally owned Rhode Island businesses.

Earlier this month, I announced a new initiative called Buy Local RI to highlight opportunities for holiday shoppers to buy local, and to raise awareness about the real and immediate positive effects that choosing to buy local can have.

Rhode Island’s Main Streets and retail districts offer a stunning variety of top-quality and cost-competitive products and services. Not only do these businesses offer friendly and personalized service, they also form the economic and social backbone of our cities, towns, villages and neighborhoods.

Studies have found that, on average, 68 cents of every $1 spent at a locally owned business stays in the community. That is 50 percent more than the same dollar spent elsewhere. Local businesses do more for the local economy because they buy more goods locally, hire more local workers and spend or invest more of their profits close to home.

Across America, small businesses and government leaders have been banding together to create vibrant local economies. This is being done with good reason. Even a 10-percent shift in consumer choices has the power to grow economic output by 20 percent, generate millions of dollars in new economic activity and create hundreds of new jobs.

It would be naïve to think that Buy Local RI by itself can solve all the issues facing our small businesses. We know that some factors — like commodity prices and the stock market — that are beyond our control. As chairwoman of the Small Business Advocacy Council I pay close attention to the challenges facing Rhode Island’s small businesses: taxes and fees, time-consuming and non-standardized regulatory requirements, the rising costs of health insurance and inadequate access to capital or to properly skilled workers.

As Rhode Island’s government prepares to address this year’s supplemental budget and next year’s projected deficit, we must make sure that the policies we craft with our state budget also begin to address these long-term challenges facing Rhode Island’s small businesses — and I am committed to doing that.

However, I also firmly believe that we need active economic-development initiatives such as Buy Local RI that can have an immediate and enduring economic impact on the state and are about the personal choices we make.

To further the goals of Buy Local RI, I have announced a series of Main Street events to highlight the opportunity to buy locally during this holiday season. The details of these events are available on my Web site ( www.ltgov.state.ri.us) and I encourage anyone interested in participating to contact my office.

In addition, to make it easier for consumers and businesses to support the goals of Buy Local RI year round, I have formed a volunteer stakeholder group to design and launch a lasting independent organization and interactive Web site. This site will support Rhode Island’s small businesses by enabling consumers and businesses to find, with the click of their mouse, a locally owned business that carries the goods or provides the services they are looking for.

This holiday season, I encourage every Rhode Islander to choose to make at least one trip to a locally owned business where you had not planned to shop. Acting together, we can make a difference and stimulate our own economy with community dollars and community sense.

Elizabeth Roberts is the lieutenant governor of Rhode Island.