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This week we’re talking about a new report on racial wealth inequality, a community-based alternative to the State of the Union address, and a worker-coop looking to challenge AirBnb.
Stories From the Field
Dreams Deferred: How Enriching The 1 Percent Widens The Racial Wealth Divide: A new report from NEC Member, Institute for Policy Studies shows we cannot address the racial wealth without policy solutions that reduce overall concentrations of wealth and power. Read the report here.
Credit unions rush to support members hit by the US government shutdown: Not everybody has the opportunity to rely on a community when paychecks get cut. Read how co-ops are waiving fees and forwarding money to their members to withstand the reprehensible shutdown.
Kentucky youth are ready for a just transition: There is a pervasive myth that Kentucky youth are apathetic. NEC Member, KSEC takes this false story head-on in its latest report summarizing a years-worth of conversations with young people in the region working to collective envision a new future beyond fossil fuels and the extractive economy. Read their report here.
Solidarity Economies Abroad
Amsterdam’s Worker Co-op AirBnb: What if there were a cooperative version of Airbnb? That’s the goal of FairBnb’s pilot project in Amsterdam. The platform is owned by a group of people contributing to the project with hopes to go a step further and make hosts owners. Read more about the alternative model here.
The Commons, The State, and the Public: A Latin American Perspective: From confusing translations, to differing social norms and philosophies, Daniel Chavez of the Transnational Institute talks about defining the “Commons” and its history in Latin America. Read the Interview on Resilience.org a project of NEC Member, Post Carbon Institute.
People’s State of the Union
Looking for a powerful way to start important conversations in the new year? Want to build bonds of connection and empathy with neighbors, friends, or strangers? Take part in the 2019 People's State of the Union, organized by NEC Member, U.S. Department of Arts and Culture! Between January 25 – February 3, 2019, you can join in this annual civic ritual by hosting a Story Circle in your community, bringing people together for the kind of sharing and deep listening that reinforces the truth that everyone’s story counts. Democracy is a conversation, not a monologue. Understanding the state of our union takes “We the People” reflecting in our own communities on our challenges and opportunities locally, nationally, and globally. The #PSOTU2019 Toolkit offers comprehensive instructions for how to host your own event!
Creative People Power
NEC Member, Springboard for the Arts launched a new framework for combining creativity-centered and people-centered development to build strong, healthy, and resilient communities. How do we understand the value of an ecosystem? What is the infrastructure that enables system change? What they’ve learned from their experience is that communities aren’t transformed by a singular event, individual, or project, but by the participation and engagement of many people in actively shaping the community over time.
This report is a powerful resource that explores how we can build a new system that tends to the health of our creative people and that allows us to tap into the power they create. Read it here.
Movement News
- North Carolina Co-ops Merge to Connect Rural Communities Across the State(s)
- Wind and Solar Are Revitalizing Rural America
- Elizabeth Warren’s Theory of Everything
- Podcast: Taking Control Through Software Defined Networks – Community Broadband Bits
- The Banks That Run on Time Instead of Money
- Video Series: Culturally Responsive Education
- 350.org 2018, The Year of Climate Action Recap Video
- Facing Race Conference Recap Video
- Comcast rejected by small town—residents vote for municipal fiber instead
- Food-desert rescuer Renaissance Co-op in Greensboro is closing
NEC on The Gram
Follow NEC on Instagram – @NewEconomyCoalition – where we raise up organizations like Women of Color in Solidarity who work with independent women/femmes/gender non-binary artists of color all over the world to support their talents and work.
Job Board
Business Alliance Coach, Boston Ujima Project
Fall 2019 Co-op Academy Application, Green Worker Cooperative
Organizing Director, Organizing People Activating Leaders
Finance Coordinator, Grassroots International
Communications and Cooperative Developer, Center for Family Life Sunset Park
Director of Equitable Development, Open Buffalo
Commit to Co-ops! Research Projects, Austin Cooperative Business Foundation
Research Intern, Community & Social Justice Partnerships Program, Transform Finance
Operations and Communication Coordinator, Fair World Project
Winter/Spring Intern, Laura Flanders Show
Updated: Co-op Development Coordinator, Worcester Roots
Senior Climate Organizer, Corporate Accountability
Solutions Journalism Reporting Internship, YES! Magazine
New England Regional Fellowship, Environmental Leadership Program
Various Positions, Intentional Endowments
Various Positions, Center for Cultural Innovation
Various Positions, CODEPINK
Various Positions, Transform Finance
Various Positions, Real Food Challenge
Various Positions, The People’s Forum
Senior Program Associate, ReFrame
Policy Director, National Family Farm Coalition
Program Manager, New York Worker Cooperative Business Development Initiative
Solar Installation and Generator Sales, SolPower
Seeding Power Fellowship, Community Food Funders
Upcoming Events
SEIZE 8-Week Solidarity Economy Organizing Certificate
The Solidarity Economy Incubation Zone (SEIZE), is hosting this eight week course to introduce the global solidarity economy movement and help participants understand their place in it. Participants will leave with a roadmap for their own participation in a global movement, an understanding of what skills and relationships they will develop, and a Certificate in Solidarity Economy Organizing. Each Thursday from 6:30-9 between January 31-March 21.
(Registration Jan 23 – Montreal, CA)
Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (SSAWG) Conference
Over 90 expert presenters offers a wide variety of sessions both for those with years of experience and for those who are new to sustainable agriculture. The line-up includes a whopping 56 educational sessions, a state networking session, a trade show, and over a dozen information exchange/crowdsourcing sessions where you get to exchange ideas and information with those who share your interests.
(Jan 23-26 – Little Rock, AR)
Regenerative Design for People & the Planet Workshops
A series of four weekend workshops hosted by Santa Cruz Permaculture exploring economics for a thriving, just, and regenerative world. The four workshops, which can be taken as individual workshops or as an entire course series, bring together instructors from a variety of backgrounds, each critically examining aspects of our economic, financial, and money systems and offering inspiring alternative models, systems, and examples.
(Jan 26-27 – Santa Cruz, CA)
Transit Equity Day
Holding actions in dozens of cities across the U.S., Transit Equity Day is a collaborative effort of several organizations and unions to promote public transit as a civil right and a strategy to combat climate change. Join NEC members Labor Network for Sustainability, Institute for Policy Studies, Jobs with Justice, and 350.org in demanding that our local, state and federal governments make public transit accessible and affordable to all, create good jobs by expanding our public transit systems, and protect our health and climate by using renewable energy to power our buses and trains.
Check out the Action Toolkit.
(Feb 4 – Global)
Racial Justice Institute 2019
The Racial Justice Institute is an opportunity to gather in Detroit with 1000+ of the brightest souls across the US to ask ourselves what we are hearing and experiencing on the ground, and how we will forge the future our peoples deserve. How will LGBTQ* people organize and transform to win racial justice? Through games, storytelling, personal reflection, and participatory learning, we’ll explore and strategize.
(Jan 23 – Detroit, MI)
A Lakota Translation of Community Wealth Building
Organized by The Democracy Collaborative, an NEC Member, join Stephanie Gutierrez of Hope Nation LLC as she presents her new report, An Indigenous Approach to Community Wealth Building: A Lakota Translation, and discusses the importance of grounding community wealth building efforts in the values and culture of the communities they serve. Stephanie will be accompanied by a representative from the Learning/Action Lab who will share their experience working collaboratively to develop social enterprise in their own Native Community.
(Jan 29 – Webinar)
NESI 2019 Global Forum
NESI 2019 will bring the global movement for economic system change together in Malaga to co-create the wellbeing economy that we all need. Participants will explore how to achieve our common global objectives (Sustainable Development Goals and climate change goals) from a local perspective and through social innovation. The food we eat, how we get around, how money circulates, the way we work – all of these and more are part of the economic system. We all have a role to play in transforming the economy so that it delivers shared well-being on a healthy planet.
(Apr 24-29 – Malaga, Spain)
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