Solidarity Economy Shorts are conversations with frontline organizations & individuals that are putting solidarity economy principles into practice. They are using different strategies to build an economic system where communities are meeting their own needs outside of capitalism. Co-op Dayton is developing and weaving a network between cooperative businesses that are meeting the needs of their local community. They are using community and worker ownership as a catalyst to transform Dayton’s Black and working class neighborhoods. In this episode, Ebony speaks with program and co-executive directors - Cherelle Gardner and Amaha Sellassie. They begin with defining what a cooperative is and different ownership structures, how cooperative businesses can meet the needs of a disinvested post-industrial city, some of the models they have incubated like T.R.I.B.E a shared-service co-op of holistic perinatal practitioners. They also invite us to think beyond the metrics of success within capitalism, what solidarity and cooperation looks like in our day to day lives, and how we can show up in solidarity. Show Notes Co-op Dayton National Black Food Justice Alliance PODER Emma: provides technical assistance, accompaniment, and lending for the development and sustainability of worker-owned businesses, resident-owned mobile home parks, and community-based real estate investment cooperatives. Seed Commons: ​​national network of locally-rooted, non-extractive loan funds that brings the power of big finance under community control. Economics for Emancipation: free course with interactive and participatory workshops that offers a deep dive into the current political economic system and explores alternative economic systems. Episode Music by MADlines

Solidarity Economy Shorts Episode #1 A collaboration with New Economy Coalition Solidarity Economy Shorts are conversations with frontline organizations & individuals that are putting solidarity economy principles into practice. They are using different strategies to build an economic system where communities are meeting their own needs outside of capitalism. Nuns and Nones is a community of sisters and seekers connect to explore the themes of justice, spiritual practice, and how to respond to the needs of the times. The Land Justice Project evolved to support these religious communities to reimagine and shift who has ownership and access to the land they are on. In this episode Ebony speaks with Brittany Koteles, the director of the project. Brittany begins with laying a foundation for what land justice is and how the Land Justice Project embodies it through its models and practices. She shares when and why land became commodified, how the aging community of nuns is navigating the mistrust and contradictions that emerge when giving Catholic owned land to Native American and Black people, and ways you can engage in land justice. Show Notes: New Economy Coalition Nuns & Nones Sustainable Economies Law Center Agrarian Commons: model of land stewardship and access that allows for community ownership of farmland Center for Ethical Land Transition: explores ways to decommodify, rematriate, and increase accessibility to land for BIPOC communities

East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative is based in the East Bay of California. They facilitate BIPOC and allied communities to cooperatively organize, finance, purchase, occupy, and steward properties, taking them permanently off the market. Residents, investors, community members, and EB PREC staff then co-own and co-steward the property. It creates a shift toward community controlled assets, and empowering their communities to be ecologically, emotionally, spiritually, culturally, and economically restorative and regenerative. In this episode, I speak with executive director Noni Session about how EB PREC is garnering support to shift real estate ownership from extractive developers into the hands of the BIPOC community in Oakland and the East Bay. She shares the difference between a permanent real estate co-op and land trust, ancestral remembrance of cooperative ownership, how they got the first group of people to invest, their governance structure and multi-stakeholder model, prioritizing inclusivity and accessibility to individual investors, transparency of investment risks and how they mitigate it, and their exciting new venture - a historic Black arts svenue they’ve acquired for Black artists and small businesses at 50% of market rate. Document detailing their direct public offering: https://ebprec.org/offering Esthers Orbit Room - mixed-use Black cultural venue: https://ebprec.org/esthers Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperatives East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative is based in the East Bay of California. They facilitate BIPOC and allied communities to cooperatively organize, finance, purchase, occupy, and steward properties, taking them permanently off the market. Residents, investors, community members, and EB PREC staff then co-own and co-steward the property. It creates a shift toward community controlled assets, and empowering their communities to be ecologically, emotionally, spiritually, culturally, and economically restorative and regenerative. In this episode, I speak with executive director Noni Session about how EB PREC is garnering support to shift real estate ownership from extractive developers into the hands of the BIPOC community in Oakland and the East Bay. She shares the difference between a permanent real estate co-op and land trust, ancestral remembrance of cooperative ownership, how they got the first group of people to invest, their governance structure and multi-stakeholder model, prioritizing inclusivity and accessibility to individual investors, transparency of investment risks and how they mitigate it, and their exciting new venture - a historic Black arts svenue they’ve acquired for Black artists and small businesses at 50% of market rate. Document detailing their direct public offering: https://ebprec.org/offering Esthers Orbit Room - mixed-use Black cultural venue: https://ebprec.org/esthers Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperatives https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-06216-7.html