What
The Community Wealth Action Group, a coalition of St. Louis, MO, and East St. Louis, IL community members seeks to reimagine STL’s economy through a radically inclusive design process that will lead to a Community Wealth Building (CWB) Playbook reflecting a diverse set of solutions from policies to programs and resource allocations to narrative shifts. The design process and CWB Playbook aim to build on existing efforts and plans while prioritizing a community wealth-building framework.
Solutions Team Member Role
Are you interested in diving into a specific driver of the economy and can commit to four Design Days, in February-May? Stipends available. Complete the interest form by Thursday, January 25th, 2024, at midnight.
We especially are looking for community members with the interest and capacity to engage in community-based visioning, are clear about why they want to reimagine the economy, have an unwavering commitment to racial equity, have an interest in learning more about the field of community wealth building, and want to co-create a diverse set of solutions tied to a specific topic that drives our economy. As a Solutions Team Member, you will:
A stipend will be provided for your time. Childcare and meals will continuously be available at no cost. Time commitment includes:
Why
The racial wealth gap is on track to lead to a day where the majority of Black and Latinx households are projected to have $0 in wealth. Generations of wealth stripping from and exploitation of marginalized communities – from slavery to redlining – can’t be solved with a single program, policy, or commitment to “inclusion.” The economy is deeply flawed, from its origin story to the way it operates today. We need to understand our history, and root causes of continued racial and economic disparities and also think about what new theories can drive new outcomes, and what new policies, programs, and mental models can advance us to a day where more communities are well and wealthy.
Process
The process especially seeks to define problems and develop solutions that address the following five drivers of our economy: business, capital, labor, land and property, ecosystem development, and coordination.
Solutions Teams
You have the opportunity to engage in one of the five Solutions Teams listed below. Attendance at all four Design Days is critical.
What The Heck Is Community Wealth Building (CWB)?
At the core, community wealth-building is about shifting our economy. An approach to creating collective well-being by building locally owned and controlled wealth and power.
FROM ONE THAT | TO ONE THAT |
pulls wealth away from communities and concentrates it in the hands of a small group of individuals -> | builds and keeps wealth in local communities of ordinary people, especially communities that have historically been stripped of wealth |
racially unjust and socially inequitable -> | racially just and socially equitable |
environmentally unsustainable -> | environmentally sustainable -- (i.e. meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of those in the future to meet their needs) |
CWB example solutions include worker-owned companies, democratic ownership of land, community-governed investment funds, and much more.