ORGANIZE

Ujima is Swahili for collective work and responsibility. Our vision for a just and sustainable Boston is based on the belief that we all have a role to play in creating an equitable economy.

Membership

Ways to Participate

Participate

Boston Ujima Project is fueled by people live you who believe in community power, culture and collectivity to bring together neighborhoods and make another Boston happen.

Endorsement Policy

Boston Ujima Project has crafted an endorsement policy aligned with our commitment to being member-led. There are three opportunities for Ujima members to review and weigh in on endorsement requests:

Every 1st Wednesday | #CoDirect: on the first Wednesday of the month, we give members an opportunity to provide input through deeper organizational updates and space for discussion. As this happens on a monthly basis, endorsement requests that come to us with a minimum of 3 weeks' notice are ideal, however, we can accommodate requests with up to 24hrs notice. We encourage you to be present at #Co-Direct to present alongside staff, as well as answer any questions or concerns.

Every 2nd Wednesday | Endorsement Request Textline: Through the use of our texting service, members now have the ability to review and respond to requests via phone.

Every 4th Wednesday | Staff WIRE Newsletter: In our monthly Staff WIRE newsletter, we give members a final opportunity to give their feedback on any requests.

Please note our timeline above to time your requests to us accordingly. Ujima will make a decision regarding your endorsement request after these steps have been completed. If you have an endorsement request, please send it to comms[at]ujimaboston.com. We will continue to make further refinements to our process. In the meantime, we're happy to support campaigns by spreading the word via our newsletters and social media. Thank you.

MA Public Banking Coalition

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MA Public Banking Coalition is a volunteer effort, endorsed by over 25 organizations across the Commonwealth. A Public Bank is a bank owned by the people through their representative government and operated in the public interest. Public banks can exist at all levels, from local to state to national. “An Act to Establish a Massachusetts Public Bank” is key to a just, equitable, and vibrant economic future for the Commonwealth’s communities and local businesses. The legislation would establish the nation’s second state-owned public bank. In partnership with Massachusetts chartered banks and community development financial institutions, the public bank would provide much-needed flexible and low-cost financing to municipalities, particularly Gateway Cities, as well as women- and minority-owned businesses, green economy, coastal communities, and local industries including agriculture. The public bank is designed to be responsive to evolving community needs while complying with standard safety and soundness regulations applying to private banks.

PILOT Action Group

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PILOT Action Group is a coalition of community, faith, and labor groups who have come together to address concerns around the role of our wealthy nonprofit neighbors in the future of our city. PILOT Action Group is a growing campaign to hold Boston city government and large nonprofit institutions accountable for millions of dollars in unpaid PILOT contributions that could be benefitting our communities through equitable investment in education, employment, and housing in Boston.

Anchor Institution Organizing

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The Anchor Institution team consists of Ujima members and solidarity members with the primary objective of supporting the Ujima ecosystem by organizing institutions in Greater Boston, focusing on universities, hospitals, and faith-based organizations, to actively support Ujima’s mission. Key strategies include focusing on procurement, involving purchases from Ujima Good Business Alliance members' businesses; and engagement in values-aligned campaigns through Ujima’s grassroots partners, such as the PILOT Action Group.

Arts & Cultural Organizing

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The Arts and Culture Organizing member team is a rotating learning space dedicated to harnessing the power of imagination as a vital element in the creation of alternative futures. Through participation in our Arts and Cultural Organizing member-led group, community members will have an opportunity to maximize their creative potential through a quarterly learning rotation and self-determined syllabus that will invite creative community members, artists and scholars to present their work, inspirations and technical skills to inspire creative community experimentation and artistic development within the Ujima ecosystem and beyond. Recognizing cultural workers as economic builders, our goal is to offer artists a platform to organize, share knowledge, and advocate for themselves and their communities.

Black Mass Coalition

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The Black Mass Coalition is a group of statewide leaders, including Ujima, from grassroots organizations to institutional entities, that developed a list of actionable, tangible items for four groups -- the private sector, nonprofits, philanthropic organizations, and government -- to commit and follow through on in order to prove that their statement, "Black Lives Matter!," is more than words but a vision of a world they want to make true with us.

Business Support

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Ujima's Business Support Team creates strategies and tools for supporting Ujima's Good Business Alliance to grow their businesses and foster strong relationships with the Ujima community and all local residents.

City Life/Vida Urbana

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City Life/Vida Urbana is a grassroots community organization committed to fighting for racial, social and economic justice and gender equality by building working class power. Our partners provide political leadership and ground our work in ongoing struggles for housing justice, labor rights, youth empowerment, environmental justice, and more.

Matahari

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Matahari Women Workers’ Center (“Matahari”) is a Boston-based organization committed to building a world without economic violence and exploitation. Our partners provide political leadership and ground our work in ongoing struggles for housing justice, labor rights, youth empowerment, environmental justice, and more.

Ujima's Time Bank

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The Time Bank Member Team supports the outreach and management of Ujima's time banking platform. The Ujima Time Bank, "Cousins," operates as a person-hours-based system of exchange. Similar to relying on that cousin we turn to in times of need, the Time Bank fosters a community where members share skills and offer services to one another. In this system, the unit of value is person-hours.

Resource Member Team

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The Resource Member Team collaborates with values-aligned partners dedicated to providing unrestricted multi-year support and/or engaging in recurring giving practices. Additionally, the team plays a key role in cultivating resources to sustain the long-term operating costs of the Boston Ujima Project.

Coalitions, Policy & Grassroots Organizing

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The Coalitions, Policy & Grassroots Organizing member team is a collaborative initiative committed to actively participating in existing coalitions, prioritizing issues such as community safety, economic and environmental justice, and adopting a multigenerational approach. Open to various matters brought forth by coalition members, the team serves as a bridge for collaboration within the coalition pillar, emphasizing principles rooted in community and liberation. The policy pillar supports ongoing policy efforts aligned with the mission, membership, and community base, while the grassroots pillar strives to build political alignment within our organizations and communities.

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