BELOVED ECONOMY

Fund Peace, Not Force, Lynn City Hall

Essex County Community Organization (ECCO), our affiliate on the North Shore, launched their beloved economy work through the incubation of Shine Together, a worker-owned cleaning co-op led by Latinx women who are building solidarity and an alternative economy one clean home or office at a time. ECCO’s beloved economy work is also defined by funding peace, not force with the reallocation of funds from policing, incarceration and other institutions that use violent force, and toward restorative justice, social services, and other programs that promote community wellbeing, safety and peace. In coalition with community based allies, ECCO has begun to see their vision come to life by the City of Lynn’s allocation of $500,000 to set up an unarmed crisis response team.

In partnership with the Boston Center for Community Ownership, Brockton Interfaith Community (BIC) launched The Cooperative Cultivators of Greater Brockton (CCGB) focused on developing and supporting worker-owned cooperative businesses as a more just and community-oriented model. CCGB has led the way by supporting the first worker co-op in Brockton - the Brockton Construction Cooperative, Inc. - as well as the HOME Coalition which is fighting to establish a network of community-owned affordable homes. While supporting these existing efforts, BIC is also building a pipeline for new co-ops through cooperative entrepreneurship training, networking events, strategic planning with key stakeholders in economic development, and by participating in statewide advocacy when larger opportunities arise. 

As Prophetic Resistance Boston was at work in Boston neighborhoods learning how CORI barriers have restricted movement in the community, leaders and organizers also heard the stories of young people who have checked out of wanting to be employed within the confines of corporate America. Refusing to work in hostile, racist unhealthy environments that judge and restrict their potential, they have created their own source of revenue by hosting pop ups, which PRB has sponsored, in backyards selling products they have created.

Pioneer Valley Project first introduced the concept of Beloved Economy to their region in August 2021 as a co-organizer of Dine Black Springfield in partnership with the Association of Black Businesses and Professionals and City Councilor Tracye Whitfield. The month-long dining experience introduced 18 restaurants to new diners and amplified the black owned restaurant scene by raising money to support their recovery and success during the pandemic.

At the heart of the Beloved Economy concept and practice is the work of challenging the status quo for many and shifting the way people who have wealth, means, privilege, and resources think about whether or not what they have is strictly theirs. Central to this is a shift in perspective from a mentality of “mine and yours” to what is “ours”.  As a statewide network, we began to see this shift occur through COVID and our affiliates' mutual aid work to collect and distribute resources - from clothes, groceries, and medicine to rent and medical care payments. In 2022, we collectively worked for the passage of the Fair Share Amendment, which will raise over $2 Billion annually for education and transportation by setting a tax of 4% on incomes over $1 Million.