Ujima is driven by the belief that locally owned businesses and cooperatives play an essential role in moving toward this vision, as people who create wealth, jobs, vital goods and services, and spaces to gather and organize in our neighborhoods. The Ujima Good Business Alliance (UGBA) unites local businesses, provides multi-faceted support, and incentivizes accountability to our shared values. The UGBA is a network of community-based businesses that are eligible for investment from the Ujima Fund and other supportive programs.
To join the Ujima Good Business Alliance, the business must first be certified as a “Good Business” by the Ujima Community Standards Committee (CSC), a democratically elected group of eight local business and community leaders, responsible for
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Proposing the Good Business Standards based on member input;
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Stewarding the invitation and intake process of businesses into the Alliance;
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Ensuring ongoing accountability by the businesses to the Standards
The Ujima Good Business Certification encompasses 36 standards across 8 categories, as well as 13 sector-specific standards informed by local grassroots partners. The Good Business Standards help us strategically shift our collective spending and support away from businesses that are harming our communities and the earth, and towards businesses building a just local economy. These certification standards were approved in 2019 and will be updated regularly by Ujima’s voting members.
2021-2022 UJIMA GOOD BUSINESSES
CERO (Cooperative Energy, Recycling, and Organics) is an award-winning commercial composting company based out of Dorchester, MA. They provide food waste pickup and diversion services for a wide range of commercial clients in the metro Boston area, and transport compostables to local farms where they are returned to the soil and used to support the local agricultural economy. Their mission is simple: keep food waste out of landfills, save money for their clients, and provide green jobs for Boston’s hard working communities.
The founding UGBA members in the directory below were invited based on relationships and information that came out of our Neighborhood Assemblies and worked to co-create the dues and criteria for the UGBA. Some of the businesses below will re-apply to join the Ujima Business Alliance based on our Good Business standards.
FOUNDING UJIMA GOOD BUSINESSES
Agaric is a worker-owned web development collective that helps people create and use powerful web sites. Because they are part of the Free Software movement, they build on tools and frameworks created and tested by thousands of people. Their goal is to give you power over your web sites and online technology.
Our grassroots partners provide political leadership and root our work in ongoing struggles for housing justice, labor rights, youth empowerment, environmental justice, and more. Their expertise and membership bodies help to guide our process of creating community-led standards and investment plans for our local economy. Visit our Organize page for more information on how to support our grassroots parners.
Email nia_at_ujimaboston.com to learn about becoming a grassroots partner.
Black Economic Justice Institute is a nonprofit organization that works to advocate and develop programs that address justice and economic opportunity for black and other people of color of Boston.
UJIMA STAFF TEAM
Nia Evans
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
James Vamboi, Jr.
CHIEF OF STAFF, COMMUNITY, AND CULTURE
Johnny Charles
MANAGING DIRECTOR,
UJIMA FUND
Cierra Peters
COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR
Paige Curtis
CULTURE AND COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
Somala Diby
FUND INTERN
Anton Jayavendra
FUND INTERN
Elijah McCants-Green
FUND INTERN
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Aaron Tanaka
CO-FOUNDER
JOIN THE TEAM
Fellowships
Ujima Arts & Cultural Organizing Fellow
Full Time (For Immediate Hire)
Finance and Administration Director
Internships (Rolling)
Arts and Cultural Organizing is one of the pillars of Ujima’s ecosystem. Ujima believes that artists and cultural workers are an integral part of building the new world; the knowledge, poetic imagination, and inventiveness of artists have always helped the world find new, more liberatory, pathways forward.
The Arts and Cultural Organizing Fellowship will be awarded to a member of Ujima’s Arts and Cultural Organizing Member Team who demonstrates a commitment to their artistic practice and a commitment to the principles of the Ujima Project.
The Ujima Arts & Cultural Organizing Fellow will spend two years in an emergent, self-determined program tailored to the needs and interests of the fellow. Applicants should be organizers, musicians, choreographers, visual artists, filmmakers, poets, novelists, playwrights, designers, directors, and performance artists who would find it beneficial to spend two years working alongside Ujima’s vibrant membership body and community.
Proposals are due September 20, 2021. Applicants will be notified in November 2021. The fellowship period begins in January 2022.
COMMUNITY STANDARDS COMMITTEE
Joyce Clark
Community Health Advocate,
NAACP New England Area Conference Chair on Climate Change
Luis Cotto
Program Manager,
Mass Cultural Council
Mea Johnson
Director of Community Organizing,
Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative
Alex Ponte Capellan
Community Organizer,
City Life/ Vida Urbana
Elie Tigalo
Worker Owner,
Tanám
INVESTMENT COMMITTEE
Alex Ponte-Capellan, Community Standards Committee
Kerry Bowie, Founder, Msaada Partners
Miriam Gee, Co-Founder, Co-Everything
Pat Miguel Tomaino, Director of Socially Responsible Investing, Zevin Asset Management
ADVISORY BOARD
Bithiah Carter, President, New England Blacks in Philanthropy
Jed Emerson, Author and Strategic Advisor to Family Offices
Rodney Foxworth, Executive Director, BALLE
Darlene Lombos, Executive Director, Community Labor United (CLU)
Brian Nagendra, Assistant Director, Catalyst Impact Funds at Living Cities
Jessica Norwood, Entrepreneur and RSF Social Finance Fellow
Jocelyn V. Sargent, Executive Strategic Consultant,New Commonwealth Racial Equity & Social Justice Fund
Morgan Simon, Author and Founding Partner, Candide Group
Mark Watson, Managing Director, Boston Impact Initiative
Kat Taylor, Co-Founder, and CEO, Beneficial State Bank
Michael Curry, Esq., Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Government Affairs & Public Policy, Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers