All of us as individuals, communities and a society should have fundamental rights to education, health care, housing, work with dignity and the other foundations of a decent life. But right now, all too many of us are denied those basic needs. Business as usual isn’t working: our economic and political systems are not adequately responding to the challenges of income and deprivation, racism, ecological degradation, anti-democratic politics, and other urgent problems. We need a New Social Contract: one that offers a framework grounded not in profiteering, social hierarchies, or concentrated power, but in human rights, equity and inclusive democracy.

Not only are communities and workers all over the country articulating shared visions for a just and truly democratic future: they are also pursuing a range of strategies to build power to make these visions a reality. Many of these strategies focus on co-governance, policy and organizing models that work inside and outside of government to shift governing power towards people who are directly impacted by injustices and have the biggest stake in making sure our society works for everybody—people like Black students, low-wage immigrant workers, and working class neighborhood residents. We are collaborating with movement allies to map, support and build out transformative co-governance models as we push together toward a just and beautiful multiracial economic and political democracy.

Click to see our new interactive map:
Co-Governance In Action
Across the Country

Read our reports:

• Community Schools & Co-governance: Lessons from Los Angeles and San Diego
• Co-Governing Toward Multiracial Democracy
• New Social Contract: Collective Solutions by and for Communities
• A New Social Contract for Workers
• Democratizing Workers’ Compensation

Watch our webinars:

• Puerto Rico & Hawaii: Building Power with Energy Democracy
• Governing Power: Movement Strategies in the US and the Global South
• Co-Governing Toward Multiracial Democracy
• Cultivating Food Justice
• Privatization or Economic Democracy?
• How Do We Invest in Our Communities?

Check out these resources:

• Pursuing Co-Governance in Chicago
• Building Bottom-Up Democracy Through Co-Governance
• How to Build Multiracial Democracy at the Local Level
• Can We Learn from COVID-19? The Need for Common Sense

Find out about our 2018-2019 speaking tour here.