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Since the advent of the COVID pandemic, Movement Matters has been helping to lead an exciting body of work with a funders’ consortium in Maryland, Virginia, and the District to transform how they approach philanthropic work. Historically, this collaborative has supported advocacy and research around workforce solutions designed to connect residents to better jobs as a means out of poverty. However, the pandemic created an opening to more fully explore underlying assumptions about the workforce system, to transform the focus from job access to economic justice, and to more thoroughly examine how societal and philanthropic power dynamics reinforce racialized and gendered poverty. The project, in partnership with the Greater Washington Community Foundation, began with the development of a participatory action research (PAR) project in which Movement Matters engaged several grassroots partners in exploring the issue of economic security. The findings highlighted the notion that: 1) jobs only got folks so far, and 2) more reliable income support (e.g. COVID economic measures, universal basic income) was necessary to achieve any level of security, even for those working multiple jobs. In addition, the project called attention to the depth of community networks that enable people to survive poverty and poverty level employment. With these collective findings at hand, the Community Foundation is now engaging a broader array of community partners to identify a guiding set of economic justice priorities for the region. The Reimagine cohort will integrate the economic justice vision and principles that emerge from the community-side process. Centering these perspectives is critical to both point funders in the right direction about what to fund and to practice new power dynamics that put community knowledge in the driver’s seat. While there is not a formal commitment that these principles will guide philanthropic giving, we are setting the stage for a shift towards funding that is more focused on structural economic change. Throughout this process, we are committed to deeply exploring the way that philanthropic institutions often replicate white supremacist structures, while simultaneously creating a space for those employed within philanthropy to examine their own biases, behaviors, and values. This combination of individual and organizational, personal and professional, is building a transformative cohort that is learning together and will continue to support each other in changing both what kind of work gets supported and how philanthropy supports it in more equitable ways. Connect with us for more information on MM's Funder Training and Technical Assistance. Movement Matters is based in Washington, DC. We work regionally and with national partners. All too often in our base building and membership development work we focus on the doing, not the thinking. We rest in an assumption that people’s lived experience with oppression means that they have a detailed understanding of how and why it happens. We under-resource the necessary work of building a shared analysis and set of values to guide our vision and strategy for change. When we invest in leadership development, it is focused solely on “how” skills (how to do a one-on-one, how to speak to a decision-maker, how to develop an action), but very seldom on the “why” or “for what”. This type of orientation is understandable. Our members and our grant deadlines often demand a timetable that is oriented toward immediate action and doesn’t allow for “non-essential” work. Our organizations have limited capacity to do deep member engagement. And our ecosystem hasn’t created the institutions that can do this kind of popular education at scale. But even if it is understandable, it is not acceptable if we want to win in the long term. A lack of investment in robust and comprehensive member education builds weak movements. We at Movement Matters have lived by this sentiment. Organizing work (whether labor or community oriented) needs to be built on a robust foundation of not just member education, but popular education. We need to create strong systems where members are supported in examining their lived experiences and existing understandings of the world; where they are challenged to contextualize these experiences within a framework of history, race, politics, gender, and economics; and where they envision and embody systems that can create true alternatives to the racialized capitalism that is destroying our people and our planet. We continue to support our labor and community partners in building these kinds of spaces, ones that merge the thinking with the doing, to build for the long term. We greatly appreciate the author, Daniel Judt's call to remember this history, as well as their highlighting spaces where unions are reinvesting in these kinds of efforts. As we all learn and navigate the current political moment, grounding ourselves in what was and what should be is necessary. And investing in the popular education of our members is the foundation of the transformative organizing that we need. Connect with us for more information on our member development work and unique popular education approach. Movement Matters is based in Washington, DC. We work regionally and with national partners. |
