Our history

Beloved Community Incubator is proud to be part of Washington, DC’s rich history of cooperatives and community power building. We’ve spent the last ten years working closely with workers and cooperatives in DC, Maryland, and Virginia to build a regional solidarity economy — check out our highlights below.

2016

Staff and members of Luther Place Memorial Church run a listening campaign with neighbors in DC's Ward 2. We hear people's hopes and dreams for secure, dignified work and the many obstacles workers are facing.

2018

Beloved Community Incubator is founded and begins incubating Dulce Hogar Cleaning Cooperative with immigrant worker-owners who want more control of their working conditions.

A group of worker owners from Dulce Hogar sit around a table looking happy. They are holding pieces of paper and putting their pens together in the middle.

2019

Dulce Hogar begins operations, becoming the first worker-owned cleaning cooperative in Washington, DC — providing worker owners a living wage and control over their schedules.

A photo of some of the worker-owners of Dulce Hogar Cleaning Cooperative. They are smiling and wearing their uniforms.

2019

BCI joins with DC street vendors to fight for the decriminalization of street vending — one of the oldest ways that poor and working class people have supported their families and provided themselves with dignified work.

Street vendors rally together on the steps of a building.

2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic reshapes the landscape of work and impacts local workers, BCI joins the Excluded Worker Campaign to fight for workers excluded from federal and local support funding. BCI secured more than $60 million for undocumented workers, workers in the informal cash economy like street vendors, and worker-owners of cooperatives denied unemployment insurance or pandemic-specific worker assistance.

The photo is from a low angle looking up at a number of people at an Excluded Workers Campaign rally. One person is speaking into a megaphone and wearing a mask, and others wear masks and hold signs. The sign in the middle reads "No me excluyas / don't exclude me."

2021

In response to a listening campaign with local cooperatives, BCI creates The BCI Network to further the cooperative ecosystem in the region, supporting 15 cooperatives ranging from pre-incubation to cooperatives that have been in operation for more than 10 years.

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.

2022

BCI partners with Seed Commons, a national network of solidarity loan funds, to launch The DC Solidarity Economy Loan Fund (DC SELF), providing non-extractive funding to local cooperatives and solidarity economy projects in DC, Maryland, and Virginia.

A person wearing blue glasses and a red shirt stands behind a piece of art on brown paper that appears to be mapping cooperative traits and qualities. Some of the words on the art include "loan fund," and parts of the words "cooperative" and "conflict resolution."

2023

The Street Vendor Advancement Amendment Act is passed unanimously by the DC Council, decriminalizing street vending, and removing major barriers that kept many vendors from being able to apply for or receive licenses.

A woman looks joyous and has her hands clasped in prayer, looking up at the sky. She wears a mask and a shirt that says "DC loves vendors." In the background, a couple of other people look joyous with the same shirt on.

2024

DC SELF surpasses $2.5M in solidarity loans, supporting projects that span 7 industries and range from a loan to purchase a truck for Swamp Rose Co-op to a $1M construction loan to Dreaming Out Loud DC to build a grocery store in DC's Ward 8.

A worker owner sits in a new red truck with a large logo for Swamp Rose Co-op on the side. Another sign on the truck reads "Ecological Landscaping."

2025

BCI receives $3.9M from Health Equity Fund, a component fund of The Greater Washington Community Foundation, to begin a joint demonstration of guaranteed income and cooperative ownership in partnership with Muslims for Just Futures. Learn More

Two people sit at a table and smile at the camera. In front of them on the table, there are worksheets.