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The solidarity economy is here — our job is to nurture and support it.

Beloved Community Incubator supports and equips workers in order to organize a regional solidarity economy that centers a livable planet and people—especially poor and working class immigrants and people of color—over profit. 
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Our Values

We are rooted in Dr. Martin Luther King’s vision of the Beloved Community — one where people and communities engage in the work of building a just, peaceful world together through nonviolent, democratic collective action. Emerging from that vision, these values guide and ground us in our work of building a regional solidarity economy for all workers.

Cooperation

Share and communicate openly, early, and often. Make room for imperfection and learning. Set and honor boundaries.

Relational Culture

Lead with listening and responsiveness. Build collaboration before cooperation. Move at the speed of alignment.

Curiousity

Learn as collective practice. Adapt to people and situations with curiosity and care. Bring concerns with a commitment to collaboration.

Inclusion

Plan collaboratively and respect individual schedules. Practice inclusive decision-making and transparent communication. Remove barriers to participation for staff & base.

Democracy

Create shared processes for shared work. Delegate democratically and hold each other accountable. Share leadership through broad, rotating participation.

Integrity

Honor our word and name our impact. Respect time, capacity, and presence. Practice integrity in how we use resources and represent BCI.

Governance
 
 
BCI is a worker self-directed nonprofit, which means we as workers shape the programs in which we work, the conditions of our workplace, and the direction of the organization as a whole.

We believe that all workers do better when our workplaces are run collectively and democratically—including us! BCI staff work together to build power and shape work into a generative part of our lives, instead of an extractive one. These internal practices help make sure that our work nurturing the solidarity economy is rooted in integrity and care for ourselves and each other.

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Our Worker Board
 
BCI is managed by a Worker Board, with an Advisory Committee that reviews our annual organizational goals and budgets and represents the communities and organizations to whom we are accountable.
Bianca Vazquez
Program Director
Celeste Smith
Operations Director
Geoff Gilbert
Legal & Technical Assistance Director
Kristen Kane
Outreach & Network Director
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Samantha Wherry
Internal Democracy Director

Our History

Founded in 2016, Beloved Community Incubator is proud to be part of Washington, DC’s rich cooperative history.

Street vendors rally together on the steps of a building.
A beautiful artist's rendering of the BCI dreamscape. It includes pillars of BCI's work like co-op incubation, lending, and mutual aid. There's drawings of people growing in and tending to a field. And many smaller graphics and logos of parts of BCI's process and dreams.

Our partnerships

We are proud to be part of a regional and national ecosystem of democratic workplaces, cooperatives, unions, and mutual aid groups that work to strengthen communities and build the solidarity economy.

OUR IMPACT OVER TIME

Read Our Annual Report

In 2024, we joined with community members and worker-owners to dream big: envisioning the infrastructure our communities truly need and the workplaces and institutions we, as
workers, can build and own together.

A cover image of the BCI 2024 Impact Report. It says "Reshaping the economy one loan and one co-op at a time" and has an image of two people looking happy.

Our Values in Action

A person sits next to a chart, and appears to be mid sentence. The chart reads some information about co-op incubation.

Coop Incubation

We provide incubation from idea to launch for worker-owned cooperatives, collectives, and solidarity economy projects, including technical, administrative, and legal support.

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Lending

We’re building a real alternative to traditional lending through the DC Solidarity Economy Loan Fund (DC SELF), which offers solidarity loans to local worker-owned businesses and community projects.

A large group of people pose for a photo outside of a building. A large chart that says "Dreamscaping" sits in the middle of the group.

Network Membership

We support cooperatives and solidarity economy organizations in DC, Maryland, and Virginia with business development, administrative, and legal assistance through the BCI Network.

Let's Connect
 
Are you part of a cooperative or collective in DC, Maryland, or Virginia? Interested in becoming a member of the BCI Network? Reach out to us to get more information.
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