This is part of a series of interview/conversations with people involved in collaborative and democratic approaches to moving money in service to a Just Transition.
These sessions are part of a discovery process that will inform the design of an "action-learning lab" in 2021 to support collaborative funding practices for networks and organizations. Learn more about this inquiry on the Now What?! Invitations blog here.
Over the last decade, Noni Session has put her efforts toward combating displacement for people of color in Oakland and the Bay Area. As a third-generation Oakland native, Noni has a personal interest in improving the conditions of low-income Bay Area neighborhoods where race, disenfranchisement and environmental injustice intersect.
As a Fulbright-Hays Research Fellow with the United Nations Development Programme in Kenya, Noni developed a keen ethnographic analysis of international humanitarian strategies for developing communities globally. Her work abroad led her to imagine new pathways for ameliorating resource disparities in her West Oakland community. She has since put her energy toward a grassroots Council campaign in Oakland where she garnered more that 43% of the vote. She subsequently joined efforts to tackle rapid displacement and economic instability in People of Color communities throughout the Bay Area by building cooperative networks and opportunities for collective economic action.
Today, Noni is the Executive Director of the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative. In her role at EB PREC, she supports BIPOC and allied communities to finance, purchase, occupy and steward collectively owned land and housing. Rather than losing more homes and communities to the devastations of the speculative housing market, her efforts ensure "development without displacement" by creating permanent, affordable, community-controlled housing.
You can reach Noni at noni@ebprec.org
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These interviews are hosted by the Thriving Resilient Communities Collaboratory (TRCC) in partnership with the Regenerosity Network and the Now What?! global gathering and gift economy.