Welcome to the April 2021 edition of the NOW Innovation Forum newsletter.

In this issue, we lift up the cooperative movement and their role in strengthening communities through asset and health building and combating structural divestment in communities of color. Cooperatives have long served an important model for building community wellbeing, guided by values of democratic decision making, shared power and ownership, and equitable distribution of health, economic, and social benefits. Join us tomorrow for a great webinar featuring leading experts and practitioners from the cooperative movement who will provide an overview of the principles and types of cooperative models and their role in advancing economic and social leadership. We hope to have you join in on the Co-Op discussion tomorrow 4/22 at 1pm ET for the NOW Webinar: Cooperative Economies for Collective Leadership and explore the resources shared throughout this newsletter.

Bienvenidos a Abril 2021 edicion de nuestro boletin para el Foro de Innovacion NOW.

En esta edición, realizamos el movimiento cooperativo y su papel en el fortalecimiento de las comunidades mediante la construcción de activos y la salud y la lucha contra la desinversión estructural en las comunidades de color. Las cooperativas han servido durante mucho tiempo como un modelo importante para construir el bienestar de la comunidad, guiadas por los valores de la toma de decisiones democrática, el poder y la propiedad compartidos y la distribución equitativa de los beneficios sociales, económicos y de salud. Únase a nosotros mañana para un gran seminario web con destacados expertos y profesionales del movimiento cooperativo que brindarán una descripción general de los principios y tipos de modelos cooperativos y su papel en el avance del liderazgo económico y social. Esperamos que se una a la discusión de Co-Op mañana 22 de abril a la 1 p.m. ET para el seminario web NOW: Economías cooperativas para el liderazgo colectivo y explore los recursos de este boletín.

In The Arena with NOW Podcast:

• Podcast Highlight: Everything Co-op Podcast, featuring Renee Hatcher on sustainable economic justice. Tune into this special Women’s History Month episode featuring Prof. Renee Hatcher, a human rights and community development lawyer, Assistant Professor of Law, and the Director of the Community Enterprise & Solidarity Economy Clinic at UIC John Marshall Law School Chicago. Listen here >>

• Episode 14: Coming Friday 4/23! Stay tuned for an exciting release of the next In The Arena with NOW episode, featuring Chicago’s Austin Neighborhood Network and their efforts to develop a community-design community plan. 

• Episode 13: Essex County Council for Young Children: Centering Parent Leadership to Foster a Trauma Informed Newark: Tune in to learn about the innovative work that the Essex County Council for Young Children (ECCYC) is leading to foster meaningful cross-sector partnerships between agencies and parents to create healthy, thriving, and resilient communities. Listen here > >

NOW Webinars: Learn more about our new 2021 series, Nurturing Family Leadership: Community-Centered Equity Practices.

• Register Today! Register Today! 4/22 @ 1-2PM ET, NOW Webinar: Cooperative Economies for Collective Leadership. Cooperatives have long served an important model for building community wellbeing, guided by values of democratic decision making, shared power and ownership, and equitable distribution of health, economic, and social benefits.  Learn from leading experts and practitioners in the field who will provide an overview of the principles and structure of cooperative economies and models, including barriers and challenges, as well as benefits and opportunities of implementing this model to advance community wellbeing. Register today at http://bit.ly/NOWWebinar-April2021.
• Webinar Archive: March 25, Redefining Justice for Children and Families: View the recording and materials from last month’s webinar featuring speakers focusing on birthing justice, climate justice, and their intersections within the Lowcountry Region of South Carolina.

NOW Blog Highlights:

• VVN’s Social Media Goal: Fuel Collective Community Power, by Camelia Garrick, Community Mobilization Coordinator, and Tiffany Rodriguez, NOW Program Coordinator at Vital Village Networks. Vital Village Networks has continued to work on aligning the launch of social media projects with the goal of fueling community power and honoring the diverse leadership of network members. Read this blog to learn more about the journey.

• Social Justice Transformation - All Minds, All Hearts, All Hands on Deck, by Camila Beiner, Boston University Graduate Journalism Intern & Language Justice Community Champion. This blog series profiles the work of community leaders across the country working to address the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and racial injustice in their local communities. Learn more about leadership of VVN network member, Latoya Gayle, in this piece.

• Growing Our Collective Data Sharing Efforts: Introducing the NOW Child Wellbeing Tracker Phase 2, by Soojin Conover, Senior Research Analyst at Vital Village Networks. Check out our ongoing parent and family engagement data sharing efforts co-designed by the participant coalitions. Read this blog post to learn more about phase 2 of the Child Wellbeing Tracker.

• Submit a resource or tool to the NOW Innovation Forum Resource Library. The resource library is a space created for you to lift up the work of yourself, action steps for advocacy and content curated by your coalitions and your community. Share data tools, infographics, reports and other tools centered on advancing community equity. Submit here >>

• Democracy at Work Network, by Democracy at Work Institute. Check out the resources and tools developed by this network of certified peer advisors who provide training and technical assistance services to worker cooperatives, including support with infrastructure, capacity, structure, and capital access. Read more >>

• Grassroots Community Engaged Investment: Redistributing power over investment processes as the key to fostering equitable communities, by Transform Finance. The report is the first attempt to synthesize details of projects around the United States that are implementing grassroots input and governance in investment processes that center communities of color through meaningful decision making and ownership. Features 16 projects, including Boston Ujima Project. Read more >> 

• Neighboring Food Co-op Association, by NFCA. Learn about a regional group of food co-ops working towards a thriving regional economy, healthy, just, and sustainable food systems, and a vibrant community of cooperative enterprise. Explore here >>

• International Cooperative Alliance, by International Cooperative Alliance. Founded in 1895, ICA is one of the oldest non-governmental organizations that unite, represent and serve cooperatives worldwide. Learn more about the history of the global cooperative movement and other helpful information and resources. Learn more >>

• Center for Cooperative Development and Solidarity - East Boston. ​CCDS is an umbrella nonprofit promoting cooperativism and solidarity economies while supporting the development of worker-owned cooperatives mostly in East Boston’s immigrant community. Their RESPLANDOR ​Centro Educativo Cooperativo provides a quality bilingual cooperative education for children led by professional worker owners, instilling family values and providing a safe environment  based on cooperative culture, principles and values. Learn more >>

#VillageinMind

The NOW community hopes to stay connected and lift up the work and stories of all of our members. Follow and tag us on Twitter, @NOW_WellChild & @Vital_Village, so that we can virtually highlight the community led transformation you are leading.