Show me what community looks like. This is what community looks like.

When you hear those words, you might hear a protest chant. I hear a daily practice. One that centers mutual aid, community care, solidarity.

When we launched the #ShareMyCheck campaign, our goal was to meet the immediate needs of grassroots groups – our community – who were facing financial instability as a result of COVID-19.

And when we asked ourselves where we might be able to find the resources to support our community, we knew who to turn to. Our community.

And y’all showed up. The response has been overwhelming – thanks to 98 donors, we raised an additional $30,000 for NEC’s Movement Support Fund, for a total of $70,000. Because of you, we were able to redistribute fourteen $5,000 grants to solidarity economy organizers.

In the last few weeks, the campaign has taken on another layer of meaning. As we read through the grant applications, as we counted the donations, as the grantmaking committee met to decide on how to move the money…our minds were on Breonna Taylor. George Floyd. Tony McDade. David McAtee. Our minds were on our family, our neighbors. And our feet were in the streets and at home, amplifying the calls to #DefundPolice and to reinvest in our communities.

The connection between the call for Black liberation and the solidarity economy movement is clear. It is urgent that we bring an end to the current system — whose power is rooted in violence and the extraction of wealth from Black communities on indigenous peoples’ stolen lands— and build a new economic system that affirms the life, health, and liberation of all. To get there will require decisive collective action, massive redistribution of wealth and resources, and deep transformations in the way we relate to one another, including the abolition of police and prisons.

The #ShareMyCheck campaign only lasted a month. But we know you are in this movement with us for the long haul. We are inspired by what we co-created together – practicing what it looks like to redistribute our wealth, to extend care for one another, because we know, in the words of Lilla Watson: “your liberation is bound up in mine.”

In solidarity,

Kelly, Melody, and the rest of the NEC staff

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2020 Movement Support Grant Recipients
“I am so humbled and grateful to receive this news. These days have been very challenging to say the least so this blessing came at the perfect time to remind me of my purpose to continuing fighting for our marginalized communities. Words cannot begin to express how deep my gratitude is for you and your team. Thank you for believing in my vision and providing the dire resources necessary for us to do the food sovereignty work our ancestors have called us to do.” – Sol2Soul Freedom Project (2020 Grantee)

Visit our website to learn more about each of our grantees – who are creating regenerative farming systems, worker cooperatives, healing spaces, and collective housing in their respective communities.

Fast facts:

• 100% of grantees have Black and/or Latinx leadership
• 100% of grantees have budgets under $100,000
• One-third of grantees are based in Puerto Rico

California

Repaired Nations

Georgia

Pecan Milk Cooperative

Massachusetts

Boston Center for Community Ownership
Worcester Roots

Michigan

Detroit Area Youth Uniting Michigan (DAYUM)

Missouri

PHI Global LLC
Solidarity Economy St. Louis

New York

Food for the Spirit

Puerto Rico

Editorial Casa Cuna
El Departamento de la Comida
Escuela Itinerante Celestina Cordero
Sol2Soul Freedom Project

Tennessee

Southeast Center for Cooperative Development

Virginia

Tightshift Laboring Cooperative / Stellar Roots

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