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

Proposing the Good Business Standards based on member input;
Stewarding the invitation and intake process of businesses into the Alliance;
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 CO-OP

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.

DOWNLOAD THE DIRECTORY

FOUNDING UJIMA GOOD BUSINESSES

Agaric

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.

UJIMA'S GRASSROOTS PARTNERS

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

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.