We're always cooking up pay-it-forward legal advice, action-oriented workshops, and happy hours with engaging conversations on how to build just and resilient local economies. And we don't only provide in-person events for you to connect with us, we provide online trainings and travel across the country to support grassroots economic empowerment. Don't miss out!
Please, help us get the word out about our upcoming events. Share with your friends or networks on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn! If you're interested in an event, someone you know will probably be interested too. Share the love!
Find Sustainable Economies Law Center's events below!
-
Thursday, August 29, 2019 at 01:00 PM through September 25, 2019
We Are Enough
Call For Artists
We invite you to become a contributing artist for our poster series on the theme We Are Enough. Seeking cartoonists, illustrators, and other artists visualizing the tools we have for transforming our economy. If interested, please reach out with proposals, past work, questions or just a hello to start the conversation.
Email Robin at WeAreEnoughProject@gmail.com. (Robin is a volunteer story-teller at the Law Center and helps us host workshops at our Legal Cafes!)
When you’re ready to submit, we will collect high resolution 8x11 images of a poster by September 25th. We currently don’t have monetary funds to offer compensation but we’re excited to discuss other means of reciprocity. The exhibit will go up at our 10 year anniversary party on October 12th followed by a show at a local gallery space.
-
Thursday, September 26, 2019 at 05:00 PM · 7 rsvps
Acta Non Verba in Oakland, CALegal Cafe
The Sustainable Economies Law Center provides direct legal support to individuals and groups who are working to create new solutions for resilient local economies. The Resilient Communities Legal Cafe is a first-come, first-serve, donation-based legal advice clinic, providing a collaborative space for community building and connecting.
This legal cafe is hosted by Acta Non Verba, a youth urban farm project that challenges oppressive dynamics and environments through urban farming.
Everyone is welcome to attend this cafe. Please RSVP below and then fill out the intake form that will be emailed to you.
-
Thursday, September 26, 2019 at 05:00 PM
Acta Non Verba in San Leandro, CABook Club Sept 2019
-
Saturday, September 28, 2019 at 09:00 AM · $25.00 USD
Village Connect in San Leandro, CAThink Outside the Boss: San Leandro
Think Outside the Boss
Think Outside the Boss provides community members an introduction into the nuts and bolts of starting and running a cooperatively owned business. We go over legal issues in an accessible way to help you understand the relationships between cooperatives, employment, and community wealth-building. If you are an entrepreneur starting a business, an existing business owner thinking about succession plans, or an existing worker coop looking for a refresher, this training is for you!
Food and drinks provided!
Attorneys, law students, and experienced cooperative professionals will give short presentations on legal issues, governance structures, financing, cooperative conversion, and more -- including resources and information on:
-
- What is a worker-owned business?
- What are advantages of forming a cooperative business?
- How do you spread ownership and control across a group of people?
- What are the steps and tax benefits for selling your business to your employees?
- How do you raise money for a cooperative?
- What are the tax and accounting issues in a cooperative?
- How does employment laws effect worker coops?
Download Think Outside the Boss for free prior to the event here.
The event will include breakout groups where you can dive deeper into cooperative conversions, speak with worker members, speak with cooperative attorneys, and more!
We would like to thank Village-Connect for sponsoring this workshop! We are excited to partner with Village connect to build the capacity of people to become more self-aware and self-directed, resulting in sustainable, positive transformation. Village connect has been in existence for over 20 years, instilling core values of communication, respect, love, and trust.
REPAIRED NATIONS creates redress for historic trends of colonization and oppression through cooperative training and development for collective ownership. Initially, REPAIRED NATIONS focuses on building wealth in Black communities by giving youth the tools needed to remain rooted: access to land and access to capital. Bookclubs, Workshops, and Trainings will educate and inspire communities to engage in cooperative effort, while giving grounded, practical skills for collective ownership.
Please help us spread the word! Co-presented with the Repaired Nations and Village-Connect!
We are looking for volunteers to support this workshop. If you are interested in attending and would like to volunteer, please email greg@theselc.org!
No one turned away for lack of funds!
-
-
People Powered Law Happy Hour
Come celebrate our #PeoplePoweredLaw campaign with the Law Center staff to cultivate connections at our upcoming happy hour!
Lawyers, sharing economy legal professionals, public interest law students, urban gardeners, social justice advocates, and more
will be in attendance! If you're a friend, fan, volunteer, member, or an attorney looking to build your network of resilience minded legal professionals, join us! This is a great place not only to learn about the Law Center, connect with our staff, and get a better understanding of our work supporting grassroots economic empowerment, but also a place to meet the movers and shakers seeding communities across the Bay toward a more humane economy!
Can't come but wanna donate? Please do so here!
-
Friday, October 11, 2019 at 08:30 AM
UC Berkeley School of Law in Berkeley, CA2019 Social Enterprise Law Seminar
We're culminating our #PeoplePoweredLaw fundraising campaign with our second annual Social Enterprise Law Seminar! Buy your ticket today and join a group of aspiring and current social enterprise lawyers as we dive into the fundamentals of advising social enterprises. Your ticket purchase also contributes to our fundraising campaign to increase access to social enterprise lawyers for everyone!
Co-hosted by Berkeley Law's New Business Community Law Clinic, this activity is approved for 10 MCLE credit hours by the State Bar of California, including one Eliminating Bias or Ethics credit.
*Although this event is geared towards lawyers, members of the general public are also welcome to attend. Sessions marked with an asterisk mark content that would be appropriate for general audience members.
Please note that the exact schedule is subject to change. Breakfast and lunch will be provided.
Ticketing Information:
Special Pricing Categories:
SELC COMMUNITY MEMBER: Become a community member and get up to $35.00 off your ticket! Community Membership is an invitation to formally join and grow the community of local economy advocates. Community membership starts at $5/month--find out more here!
LEGAL CAFE PRO BONO PLEDGE: Attorneys who commit to providing pro bono legal advice at a minimum of 3 Legal Cafe clinics only pay $50.00 for a ticket! To sign up and unlock the $50.00 hidden ticket code, simply complete and pledge your pro bono hours on this form: bit.ly/legalcafepledge.
LAW STUDENTS: We welcome law students to join us. Student pricing is $40 per ticket. You may also volunteer and attend the seminar for free; to volunteer, send an email to charlotte@theselc.org.
-
Friday, October 11, 2019 at 09:00 AM through October 14, 2019
University of Ghana, Legon in Accra, GhanaYear of Return Exchange Trip: Ghana Conference
Repaired Nations is excited to be coordinating a Year of Return Cooperatives Conference in Ghana happening in October 2019. If you would like to learn more about the Year of Return Cooperatives Conference in Ghana, and possibly attend the conference yourself, please continue reading below!
If you would like to donate to support this vital conference, please make your tax-deductible contribution here!
(1) Forging Cooperative Connections between Ghana and the US.
We are organizing a cultural exchange trip that is primarily focused on creating pathways for African Americans to reinvest in Ghana regeneratively, without perpetuating the problems of capitalism. Our cultural exchange invites East African, West African, and U.S. cooperatives to begin dialogue for a co-created equitable development policy for Ghanaian economic development, and beyond. Dialogue is the key to our trip, for only through dialogue can two distanced peoples begin to find synergies between themselves, and only through dialogue can new arrivals to Ghana know what Ghanaians want for Ghana and how to help steward this vision. In partnership with the Ghana Cooperatives Council, we will host a conference in Accra at the National History Museum where attendees will share knowledge and experience while co-creating equitable development policy.
Dialogue is the key to our trip; it is only through dialogue that two distanced peoples with shared roots can begin to find synergies between themselves, and only through dialogue can new arrivals to Africa know what Africans want for Africa and how to help steward their visions. Co-created equitable development policy can only be built upon discussion, exchange of ideas, and information. This conference will begin, re-establish, and strengthen economic relationships throughout the African Diaspora.
Please email greg(at)theselc.org to reserve space on the trip, then make your deposit here.
(2) Equitable Cooperative Development Policy
The growing American cohort is a group of cooperative-minded people seeking to learn how Ghanaians in particular, and Africans in general, structure their collective efforts, to offer our experience and expertise to local projects, and to engage critical conversation regarding international cooperative exchange of resources. Attendees will form relationships that bloom into
- Cultural content,
- Import/export agreements,
- Thought partnership, and
- Community-owned real estate development uniquely structured to prevent displacement.
As global pressures from capital begin to move more and more Black residents from their homes, repatriating back to West Africa begins to make sense for the financial realities of many displaced people. We seek to build bridges now, and begin dialogue with Ghanaians to understand how capital pressures affect their lives and how an influx of cooperative effort from African Americans can increase their capacity to develop and co-own their own neighborhoods, instead of allowing outside capitalists to determine how neighborhoods are developed based solely on property ownership.
(3) Coast to Culture Podcast
Our podcast, Coast to Culture, will document how cultural exchange attendees are approaching the Year of Return. Each person will give regular updates on how planning for the trip, and participating in the Year of Return has affected them emotionally, financially, interpersonally, and spiritually. Exchange organizers will share knowledge and revelations from their experience developing the exchange trip. Upon return to the Motherland, Coast to Culture hosts will interview experts in culture, law, business, and cooperative enterprises to help ground the audience in African cooperative business opportunities and how to prepare for international business between the U.S. and West Africa. We will forefront how welcoming Ghanaians are to cooperative business and how well African-Americans are received during the Year of Return. All of our podcast segments seek to spark engagement with cooperatives about Ghana's open door policy for the African Diaspora.
Please email greg(at)theselc.org to reserve space on the trip, then make your deposit here.
Tentative Ghana Cooperative Exchange Itinerary
October 11 - Arrival Flight
October 12 - Dinner & Artist Exchange
October 13 - Slave Castle Tour
October 14 - Un-Conference
October 15 - Collective Decision by Attendees
October 16 - Collective Decision by Attendees
October 17 - Collective Decision by Attendees
October 18 - Closing Exchange Reception
October 19 - Departure Flight
-
Saturday, October 12, 2019 at 02:00 PM
7th West in Oakland, CA10 Year Anniversary Celebration!
Celebrate Sustainable Economies Law Center’s 10 Year Anniversary!
Help us imagine the next decade of social transformation with food, dance, and art on Saturday, October 12th in Oakland, California. Buy your tickets below.
For the past ten years, Sustainable Economies Law Center has been supporting movement changemakers with the legal expertise needed to transition from destructive economic systems to innovative and cooperative alternatives. Our story is the story of our partners, clients, volunteers, and staff. It is the story of the movements we uplift for a more just, joyful, and resilient world. It’s the story of you! It’s the story of us!
And the next ten years are even more important. We believe we have the tools, resources, and communities needed for social transformation! This celebration is about the spirit, wisdom, and solidarity that already exists and will continue to deepen over the next ten years. Come celebrate with us and imagine the future that we need, together!
We want all of our communities to join us! If you are unable to afford a General Admission ticket and would like to request discounted admission, please email Ricardo at ricardo@theselc.org. We have a limited number of reduced price tickets. Also, children under the age of 5 get in free!
Meet us in the sunshine on the 7th West patio for delicious Filipino food by Jeepney, drinks, games, art, and a dance party courtesy of DJ Baagi!
Join us on October 12th to celebrate 10 amazing years of cultivating people power and community resilience. Buy your tickets by clicking the button below or visiting our eventbrite page here.
