Jamie Facciola of Repair Revolution. Photos by Gabriel Tolliver of Oaklandnorth.net

Meet Jamie. She’s an entrepreneur who first came to the Resilient Communities Legal Cafe in 2015 with a question: "If I reframe repair, will people come?" Since then, her business, Repair Revolution, has gone through many iterations. She’s brought together a cluster of neighborhood repair shops for pop-up events in Oakland, where Oaklanders bring their old clothes, phones, and small appliances to be fixed, and she operated a two-month-long repair salon at OwlNWood, a local boutique in uptown Oakland. 

Left: Sergio Villarroel of isavemobile.com. Right: One Stop Shoe Shine. Photos by Gabriel Tolliver of Oaklandnorth.net

“I wanted to create a business model that decouples environmental impact from growth. Our economic system rewards constant growth through needless consumption.… Repair is regenerative and good for our local economy, community, and the environment,” said Jamie.

In 2016, her business won an Oakland Indie Award for Environmental Leadership, and Jamie is working hard to figure out what the next chapter of her business will look like. Throughout this process, she’s come back to our Legal Cafe to get legal advice and guidance. She shared, “The Cafe feels like a place where I can expand my vision through talking to people who genuinely share my interest in building a regenerative economy. No question felt too small or frivolous for the Legal Cafe – I felt empowered knowing I had this resource to help me start my business.”

This year, the Law Center will continue to be a key resource for changemakers like Jamie. Through giving advice at our Legal Cafes, empowering and training everyday people to become transformative policymakers, supporting organizations to become worker self-directed, advocating for laws that cultivate worker cooperatives, and much more, we are helping create equitable, resilient, thriving communities where everyone has access to sustainable sources of food, housing, energy, and jobs.

Your support has made our work possible, and this year, we want to invite you to think about how we can support your work in creating a better future for all of us. Could we offer legal advice for your social enterprise, or in your community? Could we help democratize your workplace? It’ll take all of working together to build a grassroots transformation of the economy. Take the first step, and explore our website to see what resources we can offer you. 

FROM THE BLOG:

On British Pop & Food Sovereignty 
Food and Farm Attorney Neil Thapar makes the case for why the American agricultural system should stop trying to feed the world, and why our work focuses on community food sovereignty.

Piecing Together the Community Energy Puzzle
Community Renewable Energy Director Subin Varghese explains how our current legal system favors centralized and for-profit ownership of energy infrastructure by the wealthiest sectors of society, and presents the many moving parts of creating a transition to community energy.

Resiliency in a Time of Trump
Organizational Design Fellow Simon Mont shares how the Worker Self-Direction model can support nonprofit organizations in remaining mission-aligned and accountable to impacted communities.

The Power of Wholeness in the Workplace
Organizational Design Fellow Simon Mont lays out how organizations can be built to harness the full potential of its workers, and how that can directly impact the organization’s ability to build a just and sustainable society.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Advocacy 101 for Nonprofits Webinar, January 25th
Did you know that federal law allows 501(c)(3) public charities (including houses of worship and public foundations) to do generous amounts of lobbying? In fact, lobbying is not only legal – it’s one of the most effective means for nonprofits to advance their missions! If you are part of a nonprofit organization that should be rolling up its sleeves and changing the laws, this webinar is for you! Find more details and register here.

Investing in Small Local Businesses - A Workshop for Beginning Investors, February 15, Oakland, CA
Do you care about using your dollars to support small local businesses and enterprises whose practices align with your values? What about the dollars in your retirement savings account or your bank savings account? If you have even a very modest amount of savings to invest in creating more thriving, local economies but don’t know how to find such opportunities or navigate your options, then this workshop is for you! Find more details and register here.

Resilient Communities Legal Cafe, January-March, East Bay
The Resilient Communities Legal Cafe provides direct legal advice, workshops, teach-ins, discussions, and legal services to businesses and organizations that are trying to make their communities a better place to live and thrive. Come, ask us your questions, and join others from your neighborhood who are taking their livelihoods, communities, and economies back! See dates and locations here.

Evolving + Emerging Economies Jam 2
As a change-maker, how can you thrive, grow, heal and sustain? How can you deepen your interpersonal skills to transform the relationships that underlie communities and economies? What does “the new economy” mean to you, for the many kinds of economic movements and forms of right livelihood that already exist? These are some of the questions that will bring together 30 diverse visionaries, social entrepreneurs, community organizers and new economy leaders for a week of personal inquiry, resource-sharing, community-connecting, and movement building. Find out more information, and apply here.