We’ve spent the past two months engaging in regional listening across DC, Maryland, and Virginia through our summer Participatory Action Research project. With a trained team of 8 community listeners from Muslims for Just Futures, African Communities together, and other organizations, we’ve spent time in one to one interviews and door to door conversations, asking questions about people’s dreams for work, care, and mutual aid.
We think of these things as building blocks of the Solidarity Economy — the alternatives to capitalism that help those most impacted by it thrive. So far this summer we’ve had 250 conversations through one-on-ones, canvasses, and meetings with workers and business owners throughout the region.
We loved teaming up with Muslims for Just Futures this summer to listen to people in Virginia who are calling on their government representatives to divest from Israel and invest in community needs, and with the Woodner Tenant Union to canvass their neighbors on what the solidarity economy means to them.
We’re excited to share this brief overview of our summer of PAR — more deep dives into our project coming soon! If you’d like to get involved or be interviewed, please contact us.