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In Seattle, Protests Over Racial Equity Turn to Land Ownership

Gregory Scruggs

June 23, 2020 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

Over 1000 community members gathered to demand officials keep a 2016 promise to give a vacant publicly-owned fire station to the Africatown Community Land Trust. The station is in a historically Black and quickly gentrifying neighborhood and the trust wants to turn it into a resource center to develop the next generation of Black entrepreneurs. As citywide protests for racial equality spread, the city abruptly agreed to turn it over. The group also wants more unused properties turned over to Black community ownership and for the city to develop an anti-gentrification land acquisition fund.

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Sewing circle: How Women of the Global South helps refugees stitch together new lives in Brazil

Pedro Lira

June 19, 2020 |

Pioneers Post |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Brazil, Rio de Janeiro

Refugee women arriving in Brazil have been able to achieve financial independence through the work of an organization called Women of the Global South, an organization that provides women with the tools and skills to sell textiles. In addition to providing entrepreneurial skills, it also helps refugee women with transportation, classes, sewing machines and even provides cash for emergencies and help getting in touch with family members they have been separated from.

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For Indigenous Zapotec Families, Spinning Becomes a Lifeline

Tracy Barnett

June 17, 2020 |

Yes! Magazine |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Mexico, Oaxaca

Mark Brown has brought Ghandian economic principles of economic justice and local autonomy to the Mexican countryside to form a farm-to-garment textile business that employs villagers who once made woolen textiles until the industrial clothing era started producing cheap synthetic clothing and rendered their craft unprofitable. Khadi Oaxaca aims to regenerate the village way of life in a sustainable way and employs several hundred villagers who grow the cotton, spin the thread, design the clothing and bring it to market for tourists - bringing a previously economically depressed village out of poverty.

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Is Germany Doing Enough to Ensure Small Businesses survive the Coronavirus crisis?

Rachel Loxton

June 02, 2020 |

The Local |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Germany

The German government has spent billions to keep small businesses and freelancers afloat during the pandemic. Entrepreneurs who qualified were sent funds, often within 2 business days, specifically for business-operating costs such as commercial rent. Some businesses are hoping for more support in the form of rent freezes depending on how long the lockdown continues while others lost out on funding by waiting too long. The program ran out of money but the government has announced additional aid packages.

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Pakistan's solution to the locust invasion? Turn the pests into chicken feed

Rina Saeed Khan

May 28, 2020 |

Scroll.In |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Pakistan, Depalpur, Punjab

As locust swarms threaten crops in Pakistan, a pilot program offers farmers a way to get rid of the pests without using insecticides that harm the environment, while also earning money. Once farmers trap the locusts at night, the creatures are turned into high-protein chicken feed for animal feed mills. During the pilot project, farmers netted up to $125 for one night’s work and the community hauled an average of seven tonnes a night. While harvesting locusts works for some farming areas, it might not be as easy for farmers in desert areas who have to rely on chemical sprays offered by the government.

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This Nonprofit Helps Small Business Aid Go Where it Usually Doesn't

Oscar Perry Abello

May 21, 2020 |

Next City |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

An American nonprofit called the Community Reinvestment Fund expands access to small business loans by partnering with almost two dozen groups across the country to set up and scale up their community development lending. Founded in 1988, the group essentially takes on the risk of a SBA license so that others could benefit from their license. They created an online platform called Spark that redesigned the user interface of the existing loan processor platform to better facilitate the exchange of money. They have now supported loans for 1,000 communities across 49 states.

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How Louisiana cities are using the CARES Act to save small businesses, keep people in homes

Christiaan Mader

May 19, 2020 |

The Current (Louisiana) |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Louisiana

The Cares Act is a federal program providing $46.6 million dollars of emergency aid which cities in Louisiana are spending on a combination of a mortgage and rent relief or on the needs of small businesses. For most cities throughout the state, the first priority is keeping residents in their homes as the stay on evictions approaches, at which point landlords will expect rent as well as backpay. Louisiana faces the triple threat of a pandemic, the economic fallout from it, and a series of tornados. Keeping people in their homes has been the foremost priority to stop the spread of the virus.

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Formerly Incarcerated Women Launch Worker-Owned Food Business During COVID-19

Oscar Perry Abello

May 14, 2020 |

Next City |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

ChiFresh Kitchen is a worker-owned cooperative that gives formerly incarcerated people an income, and a second chance, under a corporate structure that attacks high unemployment from the ground up. Formed as a catering business on Chicago's West Side just as the pandemic shutdown began, ChiFresh shifted its intended clientele from nursing homes and schools to food-relief programs distributing free meals. The co-op, initially formed by mostly black women with hopes of scaling up to about 100 worker-owners, echoes the sorts of enterprises formed in response to Jim Crow restrictions of the past.

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Playas del Coco turns to bartering as a payment method during the pandemic

Eduardo Costa

May 07, 2020 |

La Voz de Guanacaste |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Venezuela, Carrillo, Guanacaste

A community in Guanacaste has turned to a bartering system during the coronavirus pandemic to help connect those who are out of work with the supplies they need to live. Similar to an existing program in France, the initiative "consists of being able to use barter or exchange services or products as a means of payment, avoiding the use of money due to lack of income."

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Community Development Lenders Turning to Fintech for a Boost During Crisis

Oscar Perry Abello

April 30, 2020 |

Next City |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

CNote has provided a source of funding for federally certified Community Development Financial Institutions by pooling cash from foundations, bigger banks, philanthropists, and donor-advised funds to counter the lack of available cash flow experienced by CDFIs, which are lenders but not banks. Federal COVID-19 funding set aside $30 billion specifically for CDFIs that overwhelmingly lend to women- and minority-owned businesses, which face persistent racial and gender biases and are unable to successfully tap into lending and grants such as the Paycheck Protection Program through traditional lenders.

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