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BLJTI Program Overview

Regenerative Economies

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Program Description

We are living under an extractive economy that regards everything on mother earth, including people, as resources to be exploited. It depletes resources, profits off injustice, and thrives on the worst possible expressions of human behavior. Its crimes are too numerous to list – everything from chattel slavery to the climate crisis trace back to this unspeakably inhumane approach to existing on this planet. Regenerative economies benefit everyone and the planet. We must envision and create a future where economic systems are rooted in justice, equity, and sustainability, dismantling the structures that work to prevent self-determination and liberation for Black communities. Many communities have already begun this imperative work, and their victories can and must be replicated far and wide, for the wellbeing of all. This program provides tools to create such a future by exploring the transformative potential of Just Transition frameworks and regenerative economics.

Program Objectives

The objectives below outline the core knowledge, skills, and capacities participants will build through this program. At the conclusion of the certification program participants will be able to:

  • Explain the historical and ongoing inequities of extractive economies, including their impacts on land, labor, wealth, and community well-being.
  • Summarize the need for models and practices that dismantle extractive systems and advance regenerative economies in Black communities.
  • Assess the utility of community-driven, cooperative, and solidarity economy approaches for advancing economic and social resilience.
  • Examine existing policies, practices, and financial structures that govern economic systems, and identify pathways for reform and replacement with regenerative models.
  • Formulate a just, community-centered Action Plan to establish regenerative, and sustainable economic systems.
  • Examine African and African diasporic traditional knowledge systems related to land stewardship, reciprocity, collective wealth, and care, and their relevance to contemporary regenerative and solidarity-based economic models.