Newsletters

This month's highlights include:

• Executive Vice President and Senior Fellow Marjorie Kelly contributed an article to The Hill describing how broad-based ownership models can help reduce income-inequality.
• Senior Fellow Steve Dubb contributes a post to Shelterforce’s Rooflines blog in which he discusses universities’ growing interest in anchor institution strategies.
• Journalist Jay Walljasper recently published a story in On the Commons magazine about a social enterprise endeavor led by Native American Natural Foods (NANF), a participant in our Learning/Action Lab for Community Wealth Building, a program to promote social enterprise and community ownership in Indian Country.

This month's developments include:

• Executive Vice President and Senior Fellow Marjorie Kelly, Manager of Community Development Programs Sarah McKinley, and Associate of Community Wealth Building Research and Strategy Violeta Duncan contribute an article to the U.K.-based journal Renewal in which they outline the tenets of community wealth building and a vision for a more inclusive and sustainable economy.
• A recent article in The Progressive discusses growing political interest in democratizing the economy and highlighted the work of Democracy Collaborative Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Next System Project Gar Alperovitz.
• We welcome author, attorney, activist, and former candidate for California State Treasurer Ellen Brown to the The Democracy Collaborative team as a Fellow. Ellen is a founder of the Public Banking Institute.
• As part of The Next System Project, we publish an article by Erik Lampmann on the importance of building LGBTQ justice into conversations about system design, as well as an essay from organizer Jennifer Bryant on a Washington DC-based cooperative that exemplifies Dr. Jessica Gordon Nembhard’s vision for a cooperative solidarity commonwealth
  
• The Next System Project co-hosts a webinar on energy democracy in conjunction with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Local Clean Energy Alliance, Cooperative Energy Future,
  Alliance for a Green Economy, and the Sierra Club, and releases a new animation on David Bollier's proposal for "commoning" to change the current system.

This month's developments include:

• The Next System Project teach-ins were recently held at the University of Washington Seattle, the University of California Santa Barbara, and the University of Texas-Arlington.
• The Next System Project Co-Chair and Democracy Collaborative Co-Founder Gar Alperovitz and Next System Project Director of Special Initiatives Ben Manski discuss the past, present, and future of the Teach-In movement in an op-ed published in Truthout, while Acronym TV and Counterpoint Radio feature interviews with Next System Project Teach-In Coordinator Dana Brown.
• The Next System Project announces a national essay competition, calling for proposals on systemic alternatives. Winning essays by college undergraduates, graduate students and non-students are eligible for $5,000 prizes.
• Our Co-founder and author of The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb Gar Alperovitz contributes an article to Salon that unravels the myths behind the United States' decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan.
• The Guardian features our Executive Vice President and Senior Fellow Marjorie Kelly in a article on incorporating democratic ownership into the design of financial institutions.
• The Next System Project Co-Chair Gus Speth and MIT's J. Phillip Thompson note the current opportunity to align civil rights and environmental movements to create deep systemic transformation in an article for The Nation.
  
• Our Director of Strategy Development and Operations Jessica Bonanno gives a keynote address on community wealth building at the Poughkeepsie Community Wealth-Building Summit in Poughkeepsie, New York.

This month's developments include:

• The Next System Project reaches a landmark first anniversary: we host the first Next System Project Teach-ins in Madison, Wisconsin and New York City, release a new curriculum on system change, publish four new papers on alternative systemic models, release a new video on economic democracy, and published several new articles and interviews.
• We share the release of a Stanford Social Innovation Review article authored by Nick Tilsen, Executive Director of Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation, in which he discusses how philanthropy can better partner with Native American communities to support economic revitalization.  
• Director of Special Projects Steve Dubb, along with other participants in the Learning/Action Lab, discussed our ongoing work at the New Partners for Smart Growth Conference in Portland, Oregon.
• Sarah McKinley gives a webinar presentation as part of the Community Builders Webinar Series, which showcases developers, planners, and community leaders working to create stronger communities and diverse economies in the American West.
• We welcome new Research Associate Jarrid Green and Research Assistant Emily Sladek to our team.