*Need Review* DC CWB Work Session Recap and Coalition Development

[Abi Shakur]

Hi everyone,

Thank you so much to those that made our Work Session yesterday! I wanted to provide a recap for folks who couldn't make it and explain an important update for the Coalition that we need your feedback on. Please read all the way through!

Work Session Recap

Our three working groups, Landscape Building, Public Education, and Legislative Advocacy, discussed first steps to meet their respective goals which can be reviewed here. Working group leaders will follow up with individuals via our WhatsApp chat about next steps. After doing a skill survey, folks paired off with other team members to have one to one meetings to build relationship and the cohesion of our groups. Let me know if you missed the meeting and would like to get connected with a team member as well! As a reminder to those having one to ones, some guiding questions for your meetings are as follows:

• What brought you to CWB work? What’s your story?
• What excites you the most about the working group?
• What do you think could be challenging?
• Looking at your Skill Survey responses, what are some ways you could you lean on each other as the work continues?

Coalition Development 

Over the last several weeks, Sam, Jim, myself, and a few others have been discussing a Funding Proposal to make the work of DC CWB sustainable in the long-term. We would like to begin applying for grants to have a budget for regular events, stipends for coalition members holding specific leadership roles, and a salary for a part-time coalition manager (the role I have been effectively filling as a volunteer). Here is a proposal outlining what we would be fundraising for and what the scope of work would be for the Coalition Manager. Transparently, I would deeply love to continue to work in this capacity, but I cannot reliably do this to the best of my ability without compensation. Our plan is, at our next Friday Coalition Meeting (Fri, 12/5, 10am) we will discuss and then vote on the content of the Funding Proposal and approval of me formally filling the role of Coalition Manager. Between now and then, we would love folks to review and add any comments or suggestions to the document in preparation for the vote.

This is a big step! And we want everyone to feel supportive of this path forward. Any issues that arise we will take into collective discussion and resolve before any thing is made final. Please take the time to think and review.

Relatedly, in order to do this fundraising, we need to assemble a team to do grant writing and grant reporting starting in the next couple of months. Huge thanks to ARC DMV and Jim for stepping up as our long-term fiscal sponsor! If you would be interested in attending a training about grant writing/management and would like to be part of the team, please let me know ASAP. Thank you so much to the handful of folks who have already stepped up.

Apologies for the long email folks. Naturally, we have a lot of to do as our work together continues to blossom and I appreciate yalls commitment!

As always, let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to seeing yall next.

Best,

Abi

202 578 1325

[Nadia J Bouajila]

Hey Abi! 

Sorry it took so long to get back, just catching up after the conference. 

Thank you for all the thorough updates! I'm excited to be paired up with someone for the one-on-one and to read more about how last week's work session went.  

Great news about the Funding Proposal and new roles to make this work sustainable. You've got my full support to keep doing the great leadership work you've put so much love into. I'll be on the call on 12/5 and happy to support in whatever ways I can to help bring that position the funding and framework it needs to make this sustainable for everyone. 

Also, please count me in for attending a training on grant writing/management. I have limited experience in that area but would love to build on it and see if that's somewhere I can be of service to CWB in the future. 

Warmly, 

Nadia 

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From: dccommun...@googlegroups.com <dccommun...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Abi Shakur <abisha...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2025 7:19 PM
To: DC Community Wealth Building / Co-op Business Ecosystem <dccommun...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: *Need Review* DC CWB Work Session Recap and Coalition Development

 

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