Symbiosis Summer 2021! Donate Today and Join Us.
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Support the Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust in West Jackson!
Donate Today. Please indidate "Symbiosis Summer" in the note on your donation.
This summer from August 8 through 15, members of the Symbiosis network are converging in Jackson, Mississippi to renovate and rehab properties and sites on the Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust stewarded by Cooperation Jackson, in order to provide affordable housing, lots for urban agriculture, and a basis for an Eco-Village concept ensuring a more sustainable future. We need your help to make this a reality!
Symbiosis Summer
Inspired by the Detroit Summer program based out of the Boggs Center, itself inspired by the Mississippi Summer at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Symbiosis Summer brings together volunteers from far afield to come together and work on a project giving back to that community and building deeper connections and networks of solidarity between them.
This inaugural summer will take place in the western neighborhoods of Jackson, where we will be working with Cooperation Jackson to complete the rehabilitation of several properties held by their community land trust, as well as help with the summer harvest of Freedom Farms cooperative.
The Costs
Our committee has budgeted for costs to provide room and board on their properties for up to thirty volunteers to be about $5000. We are reaching out to local groceries for possible donations to reduce costs. We are also looking to rent a passenger van for transporting people to and from the work sites, to reduce the need for cars. Most coming in are paying entirely for their travel expenses to reach here.
Cooperation Jackson has committed to paying 40% of the costs, with the remainder to be paid by the crowdfunding and the Symbiosis Network. Anything raised in the excess of this goal will go towards paying back Cooperation Jackson for their portion and investing back in the community of West Jackson.
Cooperation Jackson
Cooperation Jackson is a network of worker co-ops, solidarity economy institutions, and mutual aid initiatives that are working to build economic democracy and self-determination, as outlined in the Jackson-Kush Plan. Officially founded in 2014 at the Jackson Rising conference, Cooperation Jackson owns over fifty lots of land in their Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust initiative, where most of the work of Symbiosis Summer will take place.
Symbiosis
Symbiosis is a confederation of grassroots, municipal organizations across North America, building a democratic and ecological movement for a better world, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city. Starting at the Congress of Municipal Movements in 2019, Symbiosis provides a global platform for local organizing with over twenty affiliate organizations and more partners in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Through this platform we seek to escalate our work to new territories of radical possibility, rooted deeply in principles of autonomy, solidarity, social ecology, and radical democracy.
Get involved!
Bringing together resources from the crowd is a key strategy. We do not rely on grants or foundations, instead run on the donations of our members and friends of the movement. In addition to giving, please feel free to reach out and share widely on social media over Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, and if you are interested in traveling to Jackson with us this summer, you can find a form to sign up to join us at this link!
