Dear Colleague,

• On March 31, we launched the Next System Project, a multi-year initiative designed to catalyze a wide-ranging discussion about the deep systemic challenges – economic, political, and social – we face as individuals, communities, and as a nation. The project is co-chaired by Democracy Collaborative Co-founder Gar Alperovitz and Senior Fellow Gus Speth. More than 350 leading scholars, activists, business people, labor leaders, and policymakers have endorsed the founding statement, including Leo Gerard, Sarita Gupta, Danny Glover, and Ai-jen Poo. View a video in which project supporters discuss the importance of building a new system and read the Next System Project’s initial report. You can read some of the press coverage about the launch in Grist, Huffington Post, YES! Magazine, Shareable, and Truthout.

• To continue to build momentum around the Next System conversation, we also invite you to join us on May 20 at 3 pm EDT for a free webinar, which will feature Gar and Gus as well as Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and CEO of PolicyLink; Juliet Schor, professor of sociology at Boston College; and Gerald Torres, professor of law at Cornell University. 

• Last year, The Democracy Collaborative partnered with the community-based organization Cooperation Jackson to identify opportunities to build a cooperative economy in Jackson, Mississippi linked to anchor institution procurement. We share some of our findings in our most recent report, Community Wealth Building in Jackson, Mississippi: Strategic Considerations.

• Join Democracy Collaborative Senior Fellow Marjorie Kelly as she moderates a free webinar, co-hosted by Project Equity, on April 28 at 2 pm EDT. The webinar, which highlights the organization's efforts to build a supportive ecosystem for worker cooperative development in the San Francisco Bay Area, follows the release of their new report, Business Conversions to Worker Cooperatives: Insights and Readiness Factors for owners and employees. Panelists include Rob Brown of the Cooperative Development Institute, Alison Lingane of Project Equity, Andrea Hurd of Mariposa Gardening & Design, and Blake Jones of Namaste Solar. Register here.

• Interest in community wealth building and transformative economic thinking continues to grow. I led a number of seminars for MBA students at Pinchot University/Bainbridge Graduate Institute as a designated “Change Agent in Residence,” along with India Pierce Lee of The Cleveland Foundation. Democracy Collaborative Co-founder Gar Alperovitz is quoted by New York Times regular contributor Mark Bittman in an op-ed on the need for systemic change and Research Director Steve Dubb and Gar wrote a blog article on the People and Places conference.

• Our staff has also been in the field. At the People and Places conference, Steve moderated a panel on our Learning/Action Lab (along with Rey España of the Native American Youth and Family Center, Robert Lilligren of Little Earth of United Tribes and Sharice Davids of Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation). Steve and Senior Research Associate Thomas Hanna both presented at the annual National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) conference on cooperative development and investment in post-industrial cities, while Communications Coordinator John Duda and Community Development Associate Violeta Duncan spoke with New Economy Maryland Fellows on opportunities to support systemic change in Maryland.