Solidarity Economy Shorts is a podcast collaboration between New Economy Coalition and Cooperative Journal Media. Tune in for more stories at Cooperative Journal Podcast & find the podcast at your favorite streaming platform. 

Solidarity Economy Shorts are conversations with frontline organizations and individuals that are putting solidarity economy principles into practice and using different strategies to build an economic system where communities are meeting their own needs outside of capitalism. 

In our sixth short, Ebony speaks with co-director Bianca Vazquez and community researcher Askalu Habtom. We discuss how Beloved Community Incubator started as a hyperlocal initiative and evolved into regional solidarity economy organizing, the difference between traditional lending and non-extractive loans, challenges and effective tools in collective organizing, how participatory action research influences their work, and actionable steps for navigating times of uncertainty. 

Beloved Community Incubator is a solidarity economy movement organization, cooperative incubator, non-extractive lender, and worker self-directed non-profit. They focus on building a regional solidarity economy in Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia that centers people, especially poor and working-class workers and people of color, over profit. 

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👉 Important notes & links:
Beloved Community Incubator
Seed Commons: cooperative network for non-extractive finance
Dulce Hogar Cleaning Co-op
Solidarity Research Center: builds solidarity economy ecosystems using data science, story-based strategy, and action research

Credits:
Episode Music by MADlines
Podcast collaboration between New Economy Coalition and Cooperative Journal Media (@cooperativejournal).