This Weekend! DC Community Wealth Building Day - Agendas and what to expect

[Abi Shakur]

Hello! 

My name is Abi. I'm a DC cooperative member and organizer with the DC Community Wealth Builders. Thank you so much for signing up to join our 2025 DC Community Wealth Building Day! We are deeply looking forward to celebrating DC cooperatives with you and strategizing to bolster the ecosystem and reach of our vision for economically empowered communities. We know that worker and tenant ownership, democratic participation, and the centering of community are essential values to break the cycles of exploitation that we face. As DC Community Wealth Builders (DC CWB), we are gathering folks during National Cooperative Month to execute a plan to grow the cooperative ecosystem in DC and add visibility to our mission. 

Whether you are planning to attend our Saturday Strategy Session or Sunday Cooperative Festival, here are some important details and reminders for you. 

First, if you haven't already registered and let us know of any accessibility needs, please do so at this link. If you would like to share this invitation with colleagues or friends in your network who would be excited about strengthening the social and economic fabric of our city, please do. We would love to bring as many friends and allies as possible into our space. 

Second, please find the agendas for each day listed below. The Saturday Strategy Session will be an engaging space for folks to contribute and commit to campaign planning to meet our coalition's goals. While the Sunday Cooperative Festival will be a much lighter family-friendly celebration of DC cooperatives and community groups featuring games, free food, and opportunities to engage with DC co-ops and our coalition.

Lastly, if you would like to support either day by volunteering and you haven't been reached out to yet, we still have need for notetakers on Saturday and for greeters and floaters on Sunday. Please respond to this email if you would like to help in either of those ways. 

Thank you so much! Our coalition has put months of effort into planning and hosting this event and we are very excited to connect with you. This is how we manifest the city and society we want to see. It brings us so much gratitude to be doing this work together.

Feel free to reach out to me with any questions and I hope you have a great start to the week. Happy National Co-op Month!

Abi

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Saturday Strategy Session

Date/time: Saturday, October 25th, 10 AM - 4 PM

Location: Foundry United Methodist Church, 1500 16th Street NW

Food and Accommodations: Free registration, lunch provided, wheelchair accessible. 

Agenda:

• 10:00-10:30am: Welcome and Introduction
• 10:30-11:00am: Introduction to Powerbuilding for the Cooperative Ecosystem with Dr. Jessica Gordon-Nembhard
• 11:00-12:00pm: Cooperative Consulting for Individual Projects
• 12:00-12:15pm: DC CWB Coalition Structure
• 12:15-12:45pm: Lunch
• 12:45-2:00pm: Breakout Discussions for Goal Setting in Key Areas: 
• Landscape Building
• Public Education
• Legislative Advocacy
• 2:00-3:00pm: Commitment and Work Structure Conversations
• 3:00-3:15pm: Closing

Sunday Cooperative Festival

Date/time: Sunday, October 26th, 3 PM - 5 PM

Location: Edgewood Community Farm, 2304 2nd St NE

Food and Accommodations: Free registration, food provided, wheelchair accessible

Agenda:

• 3:00-3:15pm: Doors Open and Food Provided by ReDelicious DC
• 3:15-3:30pm: Announcements from DCCWB and ReDelicious
• 3:30-4:45pm: Games, activities, and celebrate/connect with DC cooperatives in attendance
• 4:45-5:00pm: Closing