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This week you can find a few NEC staff at the Climate Justice Alliance’s National Member Convening (photo above) and the Nonprofit Democracy Network Gathering by NEC member organization, the Sustainable Economies Law Center. Follow along at #LivingOurPower, #CJA19 and #NonprofitDemocracy.
Stories From the Field
Healthiest US Communities Have Affordable Homes: As if it weren’t already clear that the housing crisis needs to be treated as a public health crisis, this article once again spells out the correlation between healthy communities and the housing burden. Eillie Anzilloti of Fast Company outlines the issue and lifts up Community Land Trusts as a possible solution.
Only Reparations Can Shrink the Wealth Gap: Reparations have made a surge back into the mainstream conversation – after all, a system that claims to reward hard work ought to be able to recognize and make amends for exploiting the land, labor, and lives of millions of black, indigenous, and other peoples to build this nation. This piece talks about how piecemeal solutions are no longer adequate to address America’s racial wealth gap.
Gamers United: Performative displays of solidarity with unionized workers at the Game Developers Choice Awards were sprinkled throughout the ceremonies. Is it any surprise that even in one of the best-paid industries laborers understand that they are being exploited? Watch the stage lights shut off until the speaker recognizes the union workers responsible for producing the show.
Solidarity Economies Abroad
EU Ban on Single-Use Plastics: Parliament voted 560 to 35 in favor of banning 10 different single-use plastics but not without some still wondering how countries will manage the circulation of alternatives. Read more here
International Cooperatives and Peace: Using 20 case studies from 14 countries, covering different types and stages of conflicts, a new report from the International Cooperative Alliance looks at cooperatives contributing to the empowerment of minority groups affected by conflict. See the report here
Spanish Cities Show Cooperatives Can Address Urban Ills: Reflecting on the Sharing Cities Summit, Mayo Fuster Morell of the Open University of Catalonia discusses how he is working to help translate Barcelona’s lessons with the solidarity economy to cities around the world. Read the interview on Shareable.
Guide to Arts-Based Community Dialogue
From 2014-2016, the US Department of Arts and Culture worked with three cohorts of volunteer Cultural Agents, who each hosted a public gathering, or “Imagining,” using arts-based methods to envision their communities’ futures. Part performance, part facilitated dialogue, part celebration, these gatherings brought together groups of artists, organizers, and other community members to imagine what their neighborhoods (and the world) might look like in 20 years, when art’s transformative power has been fully integrated into all aspects of public life. USDAC is bringing this “Imagining” programming to the public through a new guide. Download the USDAC DIY Guide to Arts-based Community Imaginings here.
New Democracy Collaborative Report
This new report from NEC member organization, the Democracy Collaborative investigates the state of worker cooperatives and social enterprises in the green infrastructure field. It focuses on four case studies of enterprises already operating in the field and provides practical insights to practitioners as well as local governments and anchor institutions—large, place based nonprofits like universities and hospitals—to deepen and expand community wealth building enterprises. Download the full report here.
Movement News
- Solidarity Isn’t a Slogan, It’s a Process: A Conversation with Vijay Prashad
- Co-Designing the Future of the Participatory Budgeting Movement
- Women in Economics Report Rampant Sexual Assault and Bias
- Credit Unions, We Can Do Better
- Common Myths about Employee Ownership
- The Human-Rights Agenda Underlying the 2019 Medicare for All Bill
- James Beard Foundation 2019 Leadership Award Honorees Include Real Food Generation
- Trump wants to give 62 cents of every dollar to the military. That's immoral
- U.N. blasts Blackstone Group for worsening the U.S. housing crisis
- Luxembourg to compensate unemployed cross-border workers
- People Actually Like the Green New Deal
- Energy democracy: taking back power
- The Role of Family Wealth in Reinforcing Generational Divides
- MeansTV Post Capitalist Streaming Network
- Laura Flanders Video: New Media, Old Problems: Buzzfeed, Vox, and Vice Unionize
- From The Mayor’s Office To The Streets: Black Women In Chicago Are In Command
- Where is Rural in the Green New Deal?
- Is Public Ownership Needed to Achieve a Green New Deal?
- 'It's going to be our little paradise': can co-ops solve the housing crisis?
- City of Baltimore to help accelerate business conversions to worker cooperatives
- Fairbnb: The Ethical Home-Sharing Alternative That Wants To Undermine Mass Tourism
NEC on The Gram
Follow NEC on Instagram – @NewEconomyCoalition – where, especially during Women’s History Month, we recognize the hidden and often under/uncompensated labor that Capitalism depends on.
Job Board
Office Manager/Bookkeeper, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center
Environmental & Climate Justice Systems and Evaluation Manager, NAACP
Development Director, United For A Fair Economy
Member Organizer, Ujima Project
Various Positions, Appalachian Voices
Communications Coordinator, 350.org
Various Positions, Democracy Brewing
Interim Director, RoadMap
Various Positions, Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative
Community and Ally Outreach Coordinator, Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic and MSI Integrity
Campaign Coordinator: Real Meals Campaign, HEAL Food Alliance
Communications Manager, Southerners on New Ground
Various Positions, Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED)
Humane Resources Coordinator, AORTA
Director of Community Engagement, North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO)
Various Positions, Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP)
Various Positions, Better Future Project
Digital Engagement Organizer, Corporate Accountability
Staff Director, Northern Plains Resource Council
Program Director – Harmony Initiative, Justice Funders
Program Director, Coro New York Leadership Center
Various Positions, Allied Media Project
Executive Director, Cooperative Fund of New England
Storytelling Director, Mijente
Various Positions, Race Forward
Digital Coordinator, Resource Generation
Loan Administrator, Shared Capital Cooperative
Communications & Cooperative Developer, Center for Family Life
Northwest/Central Vermont Housing Cooperative Specialist, Cooperative Development Institute
Communications Director, New Florida Majority
Program Director, San Francisco Rising
Cultural Organizer, Highlander Center
Member Services Manager, Riverton Community Housing
Co-Coordinator, Liberation School South
Development Director, Rethink
Upcoming Events
How Can We Make More Money? A Values Based Finance & Budgeting Seminar
(March 3rd Application Deadline) Build skills to strengthen your organization’s approach to finances and budgeting for social change. This seminar is designed for people at all levels. If you are a worker-owner, an educator, a cooperative developer, a community leader, or a board member of a group-oriented organization, this seminar is for you! Hosted in collaboration with NEC Member Organizations, Toolbox for Education & Social Action, and the Anti-Oppression Resource Training Alliance. (March 29-31 – Brooklyn, NY)
Taking Meaningful Action in a Time of Crisis
Join Post Carbon Institute for a lively, web-based conversation with three remarkable agents of change: Tim DeChristopher, who risked his freedom to oppose fossil fuel extraction on public lands; Nick Tilsen, who is creating a regenerative, sustainable future for his community on the Oglala Lakota Native American reservation; and Sarah Peters, an environmental engineer who won public office on a climate change platform. (April 3rd – Webinar)
TransitionUS Effective Collaboration Online Training
While working together in groups can be fun and exciting, it's not always easy. How can we collaborate with each other without replicating oppressive hierarchical structures or getting too bogged-down in group process? Specifically designed for those working together towards social change, this dynamic, participatory training will provide you with everything you need to build organizational capacity and skillfully navigate the inevitable ups and downs of group life. (April 9-May 14 – Webinar Series)
Restore and Repair: A New Social Contract to Decolonize Our Institutions
How do we tackle the devastating harms of criminalization imposed on communities of color that continue, among other things, to prevent us from creating an inclusive democracy? The movement for restorative and transformative justice in schools offers a path forward. Parents and students have built an alternative framework to repair and restore relationships and decolonize how our institutions work. Please join this conversation on how we can move from social control and criminalization to inclusive democracy and liberation. (April 17 – New York, NY)
WestCo 2019 – Co-oping: A Solution to Disillusion
WestCo is a regional conference for members of cooperatives in the Western United States and Canada. It is a space for local cooperators to build community, attend educational workshops and social events, and celebrate their common interests and experiences. The conference is organized by members of Solar Community Housing Association. WestCo organizers are looking for any and all workshop proposals that speak to this 2019 theme; whether they are hands-on, crafts-based, about the ins and outs of doing finance, or centered around anti-oppression. (April 26-28 – Davis, CA)
Institute for Policy Studies Marcus Raskin Award – Rev Dr. William J. Barber II
Join NEC member Institute for Policy Studies to recognize Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II as the 2019 Marcus Raskin Awardee for his incredible leadership in the revived Poor People’s Campaign. We welcome you to join this special program commemorating Marc’s legacy and celebrating the work of Rev. Barber and the Poor People’s Campaign. (April 30 – Washington, D.C.)
Mapping Our Futures: Economics and Governance Series
This participatory, popular education series on Monday nights will help participants understand the fundamental forces of the current economic and governance systems, envision a democratic, just, and sustainable future, and strategize toward building the new solidarity economy we all deserve. This series by Peoples Hub provides an introduction to the Highlander Center’s Mapping Our Futures curriculum and lifts up innovative strategies from across the globe that are advancing new economies and shifting the ways groups organize themselves, govern their work together, resist capitalism’s structurally designed inequities, and transform people’s lives and conditions. This curriculum is designed for community groups to build analysis and strategy and we hope that people can take this home and share these processes locally. (April-June – Webinar)
People of the Global Majority in the Outdoors, Nature and Environment Conference
PGM ONE convenes emerging and established professionals of color/the global majority who work in the environmental and outdoor movement to share, learn, collaborate, heal, celebrate, build community, find support, and sharpen their analysis of racial equity in their fields. PGM ONE is a project of NEC Member, Earth Island Institute. (May 8-10 – Philadelphia, PA)
2019 Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise
Social enterprise is a growing movement in communities across Canada. For 10 years, the Social Enterprise Council of Canada has been bringing community developers, social entrepreneurs, and policy makers together to envision how these businesses can solve our biggest problems. Join NEC Member, the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet) to learn together, celebrate incredible progress, and set the stage for the next decade of social impact. (May 8-10 – Quebec, Canada)
Frontline Oil and Gas Conference
This Indigenous-led organizing summit will be held in the epicenter of Oklahoma’s oil and gas activity in Ponca City, Oklahoma. Coming at the request of Casey Camp Horinek, Ponca Nation of Oklahoma elder, tribal councilwoman and international movement leader, this conference will bring much needed energy and attention to a key battleground state in the fight against the fossil fuel Industry. With an emphasis on innovative strategies led by frontline indigenous, POC and grassroots communities, the conference builds on the People Vs Oil and Gas Summit held in Pittsburgh in 2017 with improved structures for environmental justice. The hope is to bring together 200+ participants 75% of whom are frontline, POC, and grassroots participants. Topics will span the gamut from technical trainings on the impacts of industry, to a track on Rights of Nature, Indigenous rights and allyship, and other skills based trainings. (May 16-18 – Ponca City, OK)
National Cohousing Conference
Learn how living in community can be healthier by combating loneliness. Whether you’re just starting to explore living in cohousing or have been for decades, this conference offers something for you. Courtney Martin author of The New Better Off: Reinventing the American Dream explores how people are redefining the American dream (think more fulfillment, community, and fun, less debt, status, and stuff). (June 1-2 – Portland, OR)
ComCap Conference
ComCap19, presented by the National Coalition for Community Capital (NC3), is a multi-day gathering that offers a unique educational and networking opportunity for all those working toward equitable, resilient, and engaged communities. Join community leaders, ecosystem builders, entrepreneurs, investors, citizens, and practitioners from across the country to share community capital models, mechanisms, and best practices to grow their local economies in ways that are participatory and promote shared prosperity. (June 11-13 – Detroit, MI)
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