BCI Launches Solidarity Economy Apprenticeship Program

BCI launched the first cohort of the Solidarity Economy Apprentice Program in February, which provides business development skills and member leadership development for our regional ecosystem. While there are many organizations who recognize the wealth building and racial equity promise of cooperatives, our region lacks culturally competent coop developers who have trained to work with potential worker-owners who have been historically excluded from the traditional workforce.

The Solidarity Economy Apprentice Program began with three months of coop developer training and continues into a summer of regional listening using Participatory Action Research (PAR). PAR is rooted in the belief that that people closest to problems are best able to envision solutions to those problems, and that the people best positioned to study and produce knowledge with communities are members of those communities.

In partnership with African Communities Together, Muslims for Just Futures, National Domestic Workers and others, our ambitious goal is to speak with 500 workers across the DMV about the challenges they face and the organizing opportunities we can imagine to meet those challenges. This summer of community research will guide BCI's work for years to come.

The Regional Solidarity Economy Ecosystem Organizing Model

Building on BCI’s webinar with Nonprofit Quarterly and New Economy Coalition that looked at the national movement for solidarity economies in February 2024, BCI’s Program Director Bianca Vazquez facilitated an online conversation on March 27th about what it takes to build a regional solidarity economy in the DC area, and what’s possible when we focus locally on the well-being of people rather than profit.

Many of us live and work in places where gentrification, displacement of local businesses and families, and low-wage extractive work are par for the course. Over the past several years Beloved Community Incubator has dreamed and organized to build a different kind of city and region — one that prioritizes community accountability, collective and democratic planning, and equitable production and distribution of everything that people need to live, rather than maximum extraction, endless growth, and unchecked profit.

It can often be difficult for people interested in anticapitalism, cooperatives, or collective models to figure out how to plug into the work happening at the regional level. Our conversation brought together people from different cooperatives, both operational and in incubation, union members, funders, other regional cooperative incubators, and people generally interested in building solidarity economies in their regions.

During the call we shared practical models that we can use to evaluate and map the needs of our solidarity economy ecosystem, and collaboratively mapped our resources and needs in the DC area.We envision this regional conversation and skill-share as the first of many, as we weave together our collective vision for the DC area. We invite you to watch this call and reach out to us with questions, resources, and other needs you’d like to add to our regional solidarity economy ecosystem map!

Community Grocery Co-op Attends Inaugural Black Farmer Conference

BCI supported Community Grocery Co-op Member Loryne JOYce Bowen with attendance at The Inaugural 2024 Mid-Atlantic Black Farmers Conference this past January, put on by the Mid-Atlantic Black Farmers Caucus, a cooperative network of producers and associations of producers of agricultural products located in the Mid-Atlantic region. “As a Seasoned Community Networker/Co-operator, I learned a lot from the folks who attended and from the varied activities offered…Many thanks to BCI!”

A deep relationship between Black Farmers and food justice leaders East of the River is a key factor for success in developing a just food system and locally grounded supply chains -- an integral part of local and regional solidarity economies.

One of the Black Farm Tours offered at the conference - at The Farm at Kelly Miller.

Felix Macaraeg, BCI’s Organizing Director, shared: “It has been so exciting to accompany Community Grocery Coop (CGC) on their journey to resist and build: resist food apartheid in DC, and build a home-grown community grocery store! While successful grocery coops can be an uphill struggle, CGC has done the truly hard work first--staying together for over 10 years learning to make decisions together and navigating conflict. As one of our mentors, Ed Whitfield recently reminded us, we need more people who know how to keep people united together. Upwards and onwards, CGC!”