BCI's work with Street Vendors Honored by Washington Lawyers' Committee

On Wednesday, May 29th, Beloved Community Incubator was honored by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs for our work supporting DC Street Vendors as they fight for fair implementation of DC’s new vending laws.

Many street vendors are charged a quarterly minimum sales tax regardless of how much they actually sell. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when vendors weren’t selling due to unsafe conditions, many of them accumulated large amounts of debt due to these unfair taxes. Under the Clean Hands Law, vendors cannot apply for a license if they owe more than $100, which creates a major barrier for vendors working towards receiving Street Vending licenses. In 2023, Legal and Technical Assistance Director Geoff Gilbert, along with BCI’s Vending Team and Street Vendors, worked with The Washington Lawyers’ Committee, and pro-bono lawyers from Tzedek DC and Weil, Gotshal & Manges to file a constitutional challenge to the Clean Hands Law.

BCI received the 2024 Alfred McKenzie Award, awarded annually to clients of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee whose dedication and courage have produced civil rights victories of particular significance. We’re grateful to our partners for this recognition and look forward to continuing to support street vendors as they fight for access and fair implementation!

You can watch a short video highlighting BCI below and on YouTube.

BCI + Cooperation New Orleans Launch the Solidarity Economy Research Exchange Program

This June, two organizers from Cooperation New Orleans (CNO) will be joining BCI’s community researchers for our summer regional listening campaign. 

CNO will bring PAR practices and experience back to New Orleans. Our projects share a commitment to transforming our world through the solidarity economy —toward power for poor and working-class Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people, freedom for queer and trans people, international worker solidarity and ecological sustainability. You can support this project here.

If you want to learn more about solidarity economy organizing as a power building strategy, we encourage you to check out these short audio and text excerpts of the recent Nonprofit Quarterly series on Solidarity Economies, featuring Maya Pen from CNO and Felix Macaraeg from BCI.

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.

Remaking the Economy: Regional Solidarity Economies

The national movement towards a solidarity economy has grown exponentially over the past few years, seeded by regional ecosystems that are building grassroots power across the country. Over the past six years, BCI has been working to build a regional solidarity economy in the DC area — and our strategy of organizing with cooperatives and workers is being recognized nationally.

Building on the series in Nonprofit Quarterly this winter that highlighted case studies of solidarity economy ecosystems, including BCI’s organizing work with cooperatives and workers, Nonprofit Quarterly and the New Economy Coalition are co-hosting a webinar to dig deeper into how we build regional economies rooted in community ownership.

BCI Organizing Director Felix Macraeg shared about BCI’s work of organizing a regional solidarity economy in the DC Metro region, and the national impacts of our work with the New Economy Coalition. We invite you to watch the recording of this free webinar below.

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!”