What is Participatory Budgeting?

In 1989, the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre developed a new model of democratic participation, which has become known internationally as participatory budgeting (PB). Through this process, community members directly decide how to spend a portion of a public budget. In other words, the people who pay taxes (all of us) decide how they get spent.

This sounds simple, but it is not. Budgets are complex creatures, and it takes a lot of time and support for ordinary people to make wise spending decisions. For this reason, PB generally involves a year-long cycle of public meetings. Community members discuss local needs and develop project proposals to meet these needs, then invite the public to vote on which projects get funded.

This innovative model has become popular across Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, and has been deemed a best practice of democratic governance by the United Nations. Cities, counties, states, schools, and housing authorities have used it to give local people control over public spending.

In 2009, The Participatory Budgeting Project (The PBP) helped launch the first process in the U.S., with a $1.3 million budget in Chicago’s 49th Ward. Then, in October 2010, The PBP successfully launched a $6 million initiative in four New York City districts. 

Things to consider ahead of time

Could PB work in my community?

First, check that the right conditions are in place. At the most basic level, you need political will from above and community support from below. You need someone with control over budget money (an elected official, agency head, department director, etc.) to agree to let the public decide how to spend part of the budget. And you need community organizations — in particular those working with marginalized communities — to engage people and push the process forward.

How do we put PB on the agenda?

To start gathering support, organize a public event about PB to explain how it works, where it has worked, and what benefits it could bring to your community. The PBP can help provide speakers and materials. Ask organizations and universities to co-sponsor the event, to build up more support and resources. Invite government officials and community leaders to respond to the presentations, to say whether and how they think PB could work locally.

You can also try proposing PB at other community meetings, writing editorials or blog posts, and asking elected officials or candidates to take a stance. Bit by bit, this public outreach can add up and spark local interest.

Who should be at the table for initial discussions?

When you begin to introduce the idea of PB to your community, talk with as many interested organizations and parties as possible. This includes government representatives and elected officials, local nonprofits, block clubs, religious institutions, political groups, foundations, universities, schools, and activists. The knowledge and relationships of these groups will determine how far your efforts will go.

How do we pitch PB to attract interest?

We’ve found that different people get excited about PB for different reasons, but these six angles attract the most interest:

Democracy: Ordinary people have a real say — and they get to make real political decisions. Politicians build closer relationships with their constituents, and community members develop greater trust in government.

Transparency: Budgets are policy without rhetoric without the rhetoric; what a government actually does. When community members decide spending through a public vote, there are fewer opportunities for corruption, waste, or backlash.

Education: Participants become more active and informed citizens. Community members, staff, and officials learn democracy by doing it. They gain a deeper understanding of complex political issues and community needs.

Efficiency: Budget decisions are better when they draw on residents’ local knowledge and oversight. Once they are invested in the process, people make sure that money is spent wisely.

Social Justice: Everyone gets equal access to decision making, which levels the playing field. Traditionally underrepresented groups often participate more than usual in PB, which helps direct resources to communities with the greatest needs.

Community: Through regular meetings and assemblies, people get to know their neighbors and feel more connected to their city. Local organizations spend less time lobbying, and more time deciding policies. Budget assemblies connect community groups and help them recruit members.

How do we deal with resistance?

When government officials and other decision-makers first hear about PB, they often raise the following doubts:

“That’s the elected officials’ job”: Voters elect government officials to make the tough decisions, so shouldn’t budgeting be their responsibility?

Sure, they should be responsible, but if they share this responsibility with community members, they can better represent local needs and desires. PB helps officials do their job better, by putting them in closer touch with their constituents, and by injecting local knowledge and volunteer energy into the budget process.

“There’s no money”: Budgets are being cut across the board, so how could there be money to launch PB?

Fortunately, PB does not require a new pot of money, just a change to how existing budget funds are decided. You will need some resources to carry out the PB process, but this investment saves money down the road, as participants discover new ways to make limited budget dollars go farther.

“The process will Be co-opted”: If budget decisions are opened up to the public, won’t the ‘usual suspects’ and powerful community groups dominate?

This is a valid concern for any kind of public participation, and PB is not immune. But if you involve all segments of the community in planning the process, and reduce the barriers to participation for marginalized people, you can prevent any one sector from taking control. Regardless, when people are given real responsibility to make budget decisions, they tend to rise to the occasion, and think about the broader community.

What pot of money will the community allocate?

PB usually starts with “discretionary funds”—money that is not set aside for fixed or essential expenses but allocated at the discretion of decision-makers. While this is typically a small part of the overall budget, it is a big part of the funds that are available and up for debate each year.

There are many sources of discretionary money. It could come from the capital budget (for physical infrastructure) or operating budget (for programs and services) of your city, county, or state. City councilors or other officials could set aside their individual discretionary funds, as in Chicago and New York. These officials may also have control over special allocations like Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) or Tax Increment Financing (TIF) money. Housing authorities, schools, universities, community centers, and other public institutions could open up their budgets.

The funds could even come from non-governmental sources like foundations, community organizations, or grassroots fundraising if this money is oriented towards public or community projects. Some PB processes mix funds from different sources, to build up a bigger budget pot.

How much money is enough to do PB?

Almost no pot of money is too small to start. PB has worked with a few thousand dollars and with many millions of dollars. Most processes involve 1-15% of the overall budget. PB usually starts as a pilot project with a small budget. If the process is successful, it can build political will to increase the pot of money.

How much money you need depends on what it will be used for. If students are allocating the money to school activities, a couple thousand dollars will go a long way. If residents are deciding on significant physical improvements for public parks, streets, and buildings, you’ll probably want at least a million dollars. These capital projects typically require more money than programs and services, since they are built to last multiple years.

Regardless, you’ll want funds that are renewable from year to year, so that PB isn’t just a one-year fling. And in the long run, the more money, the more you can do!

Steps to help your community take charge of how money is spent. 

1. Planning

• Educate decision-makers 
• Engage community partners 
• Identify a pot of money to allocate 
• Secure funding and staffing for implementation 
• Announce approval of PB process

2. Design the Process

A steering committee that represents the community creates the rules and engagement plan in partnership with government officials.

• Form a Steering Committee.
• Develop a PB Rulebook.
• Schedule idea-collection events.
• Recruit and train facilitators and outreach workers.

3. Brainstorm Ideas

Via in-person meetings, and online tools, participants share and discuss ideas for projects.

• At public meetings, residents and other community stakeholders learn about PB, discuss community needs, and brainstorm project ideas.
• Residents also submit ideas online or via other digital tools.
• Residents volunteer to serve as budget delegates to turn the ideas into full project proposals for the PB ballot.

4. Develop Proposals

Volunteer “budget delegates” develop the ideas into feasible proposals, which are then vetted by professionals.

• Budget delegates go through an orientation, then meet in committees to transform the community’s initial project ideas into full proposals, with support from agency staff and technical experts.

5. Vote

Residents vote to allocate the available budget on the proposals that most serve the community’s needs.

• Delegates present final projects at science-fair style expos
• Residents vote on which projects to fund, at sites throughout the community over a week or two. 

6. Fund

The government or institution funds and implements winning projects, and participants help monitor and troubleshoot problems as they arise.

7. Evaluate

Participants and researchers evaluate the process and identify improvements to make the following year

Starting PB in your city is a lot of hard work, but if you do it right, the payoff is tremendous. You can make government more transparent, budgeting more efficient, and public spending more fair. You can educate thousands of people on how government works, develop hundreds of grassroots leaders, and build stronger community networks. And in the end, you might even fend off those waves of budget cuts, and replace them with a people’s budget.

For more information about starting PB in your community, please visit www.participatorybudgeting.org or email The PBP at info@participatorybudgeting.org.

Other Resources:

PBP Scoping Toolkit

Best Practices for Inclusive Participatory Budgeting

People Powered: Participatory Budgeting

Making Participatory Budgeting Work: Experiences on the Front Lines

More Shareable articles about Participatory Budgeting can be found in this archive.

This article was originally published on December 3, 2011 and was significantly updated by Jennifer Foley on June, 27, 2024.

The post How to start Participatory Budgeting in your city appeared first on Shareable.

A lesser-known type of organization, a community land trust (CLT), uses similar legal tools in a very different way to accomplish very different objectives: the preservation of affordable housing; avoidance of gentrification; and building of community wealth. 

According to GroundedSolutions.org, as of 2022, there are 314 community land trusts with Shared Equity programs in 46 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C., with almost 44,000 affordable housing units. A majority (87%) of those residents are first-time home buyers, and 45% are people of color.

The CLT model works by purchasing land on behalf of the community and holding it in trust, in perpetuity. The CLT can sell the land and structures on the properties, with the option to repurchase, or enter into a long-term lease, typically a ground lease, during which the tenant can make improvements to the property, and during which time the CLT maintains an interest in maintenance of the structures and property. If the buyer chooses to sell, the CLT retains the right to repurchase the structures for an agreed-upon formula giving the buyer partial equity. The remaining equity stays with the CLT, and the structure is re-sold at below market rate. The cost of the land is forever retained within the trust.

The National Community Land Trust Network provides resources and coordination for CLT’s in the U.S.

Steps for Establishing a Community Land Trust

1. Determine Rationale

When establishing a CLT, one or more of the following rationales are commonly identified:

• Developing communities without displacing people.
  • Avoiding gentrification and displacement of low-income residents.

• Perpetuating the affordability of privately owned housing.
  • Avoiding market-rates on housing that was developed intentionally for affordability by public or private measures.

• Retaining the public’s investment in affordable housing
  • Avoiding market-rates on housing that was developed for affordability with public dollars.

• Protecting the occupancy, use, condition, and design of affordable housing
  • Ensuring occupancy, stewardship and maintenance of affordable housing over time.

• Assembling land for diversity of development
  • Assembling land under which CLT tools can be used to develop multiple types of development within the CLT’s service area.

• Enabling the mobility of low-income people
  • Providing additional routes to housing for lower- and moderate-income people beyond what the market offers.

• Backstopping the security of first-time homeowners
  • Stepping in to cure defaults and prevent foreclosures, protecting the homeowner, the housing, the bank and the community

2. Determine Sponsorship

CLTs generally get their start from some sort of impetus initiated by one of the following four potential sponsors:

• Individuals and institutions at the grassroots level (typically faith-based and community organizations.)
  • Advantages of grassroots organizations include:
    
    • Acceptance by the community being served.
    • Legitimacy in the eyes of lenders and funders.
    • Market insight.
    • A lack of baggage from other organizations.
• • Disadvantages include: 
    • Challenges in building staffing and financial capacity.
    • Credibility.
    • Competition with existing organizations.
    • Difficulty in selecting beneficiaries.

• Governmental officials at the local, regional, or state level (typically municipal government.)
  • Advantages include:
    • Access to public community development funds.
    • Staff support.
    • Regulatory assistance.
    • A view of the entire housing non-profit local landscape to establish the appropriate niche for a CLT.
  • Disadvantages include: 
    • Public distrust of the government.
    • Political tainting.
    • A top-down approach that may be perceived to be out of touch with community needs.
    • Resistance to including community members in the CLT governance structure.
• Other nonprofit organizations operating within the CLT’s service area (typically community development corporations, social service organizations or housing non-profits, which may convert, spin-off, adopt a CLT as a program, or establish an affiliate organization).
  • Advantages include:
    • Foundational capacity from the existing nonprofit.
    • Increased productivity, credibility, and compatibility within the nonprofit housing network.
    • Diversification and renewal of an existing nonprofit.
  • Disadvantages include: 
    • Political baggage attributed to the parent non-profit.
    • Difficulty in adjusting leadership and board structure to accommodate the need for a CLT to be accountable to leaseholders and the community.
    • Divided loyalties and lingering control.
• Local businesses and banks (typically businesses concerned about the ability of lower-income employees to secure affordable housing.)
  • Advantages include: 
    • Early capacity and sponsorship.
    • Provision of starter homes for working families.
    • Leveraging private dollars for public funds.
  • Disadvantages include: 
    • Control and power concentrated at the business.
    • Failure to embrace the CLT model where it contrasts with traditional business models.
    • A tendency to target higher on the income scale (toward working families and above the structurally unemployed).

3. Identify Beneficiaries

The CLT must decide early on who its target beneficiaries are, as this will determine the type and tenure of housing, the amount of subsidy the CLT will need to provide to make housing affordable to the targeted beneficiary, the types of funds the CLT can access, and design of the resale formula, marketing plan, selection criteria, and organizing strategy.

When determining beneficiaries, an assessment of community need revolves around three main decision points:

• Where on the income scale to begin.
• Whether future sales should target lower on the income scale (increasing affordability) or at the same level (to maintain affordability).
• Whether other factors beyond income (families, disability, age, geography of residence or work) be factored into a decision.

Targeting higher incomes will mean challenges with nonprofit incorporation and securing means-tested public funding, greater resistance in lower-income neighborhoods, and less risk of default and maintenance issues resulting in lower administrative costs.

Maintaining affordability may mean a better equity share for sellers; expanding affordability may speed the rate at which a CLT can expand and meet its mission, as resources that would go into subsidy on subsequent rounds of sale can be used instead to acquire new properties.

Advantages of taking other factors beside income into account can include: neighborhood development objectives; broadening appeal; and tailoring developments to meet the unique needs of specific targeted groups. 

Risks include: losing out on public funding targeted toward low-income persons; running afoul of equal-protection housing laws; and perpetuating patterns of discrimination based on income and color.

4. Delineate Service Area

CLT’s are place-based organizations and must define the geography within which they will operate and serve. A CLT can operate at the scale of a neighborhood, a city, and metropolitan area, or a state.

• Advantages of operating over a large geography include: 
  • Mobility for low-income people.
  • Establishing a ”fair share” of affordable housing in the suburbs.
  • Securing lower-cost land for development outside of the urban core.
  • A wider pool of applicants allowing increased selectivity.
  • Opportunity to build a broader constituency.
  • Increased opportunities for collaboration and funding.
  • Opportunity to participate in regional smart growth planning and development.
• Disadvantages of going large include:
  • Increased management costs.
  • Loss of accountability.
  • Perception as absentee landlord.
  • Competition from other organizations operating locally.
  • NIMBY-ism (“Not in my backyard”).
  • Contributing to sprawl.
  • Less community development and organizing.

5. Organize

Key constituencies of CLTs include grassroots community advocates, nonprofits, government agencies, housing professionals, public officials, and private lenders and donors.

The three key organizing principles for a CLT include:

• Community organizing: Campaigning at the grassroots level within a neighborhood.
  
  • Advantages include: 
    • Early awareness and acceptance.
    • Recruitment, marketing, and fundraising.
  • Disadvantages include: 
    • Time consumption.
    • Engendering high expectations in the community.
    • Opening up for criticism before the CLT is established.
• Core group organizing: Approaching influential institutions and individuals to engender support.
  • Advantages include: 
    • Faster support and development.
    • Credibility.
    • Borrowing capacity.
  • Disadvantages include: 
    • The burden of elitism.
    • Borrowed baggage.
    • Increased market risk.
• Resource organizing: A few advocates secure resources (funds and/or ands) from donors to seed the fund and staff the CLT, then staff commences community or core group organizing.
  • Advantages include: 
    • Acceptability.
    • Early staffing.
    • Leveraging resources.
      
  • Disadvantages include:
    • Potential guilt by association with a donor who has earlier been perceived to have wronged or neglected a community.
    • Building projects before the organization has time to develop.
    • Too much money at once risking misuse of funds by forcing development into a single direction (possibly a bad one) quickly.

6. Develop or Improve Land

Some options for CLT land development include:

• CLT-Initiated Projects: CLT acts as developer. 
  • Issues include: the role of the CLT, conflicts, capacity, and resources.

• Buyer-Initiated Acquisition: CLT purchases land and building from the seller and executes a ground lease with the buyer. 
  • Issues include: pre-qualification for homebuyers; source and amount of subsidies; neighborhood targeting; types of housing accepted; and inspection and maintenance.

• Developer-Initiated Projects: Developer approaches CLT and assumes risk during construction. 
  • Issues include: protections for CLT and evaluation of projects.

• Stewardship Projects with Partners Doing all Development: CLT makes parcels available to developer partners, taking an active role in land assembly and stewardship but not developing. 
  • Issues include: sources of funding for the CLT of developer fees are foregone; CLT’s role in ensuring quality development; and partnerships.

• Municipality-Initiated Projects: Municipality conveys land to CLT for a specific purpose (typically for the CLT to develop affordable housing). 
  • Issues include: cost of land; allocation of risks; and any reversion clauses.

• Municipally Mandated Units (Inclusionary Zoning): CLT monitors and enforces inclusionary requirements on behalf of the municipality. 
  • Issues include: compensation for services to the municipality and responsibility for units not on CLT-land.

• Public Housing Authority PHA Divested Property: Land is conveyed from the PHA to the CLT to ensure continued affordability. 
  • Issues include: CLT’s role in managing existing tenants; price of land; and post-conveyance services to residents.

7. Secure Funding

CLT’s need funding to pay for a variety of functions related to land acquisition, construction, and subsidies. 

Sources of Project Funding include the following.

• Federal Programs: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
  • HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) and the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program
    • These may require special designation of CLT as a Community Housing Development Organization (CHDO) by their local Participating Jurisdiction (PJ). HUD Funds for organizational planning and development are also available.

• Federal Tax Credits: Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) and Historic Preservation Tax Credits
• Federal Home Loan Bank
• Private Lending Institutions
• State Housing Finance Agencies
• Institute for Community Economics’ Revolving Loan Fund
• Housing Trust Funds
• Tax Increment Financing
• Municipal Real Estate
• Private Developer Exactions
• Pension Funds
• Private Foundations
• Private Land Donations
• Development Fees
• Lease Fees

Sources of Operational Funding:

• CDBG & HOME
• Private Institutions
• Private Donors
• Grassroots Fundraising
• Development Fees, Rental Income, & Lease Fees

Project funding issues include: avoidance of subsidy erosion over time; a CLT seeks to retain the subsidy in the housing stock; acquiring grants to subsidize both land costs and building construction; and strong partnerships with local lending institutions. 

Issues in securing operational funding include: competition with other nonprofits; surviving foundation fads; and staffing levels.

It takes about three years for a CLT to establish itself within a community, which may seem like a lot of work and time, but CLTs offer a lasting, systemic solution for affordable housing.

##

This how-to is based on the publication, Starting a Community Land Trust: Organizational and Operational Choices, by John Emmeus Davis. It was originally published October 16, 2013 and was significantly updated by Jennifer Foley on March 26, 2024.

The post How to start a community land trust appeared first on Shareable.

Around the world, there are thousands of bike kitchens—also known as bike churches, bike collectives, and bike coops—with more popping up all the time (see maps here). For those interested in starting a bike kitchen in your town, we’ve rounded up the essentials of getting started, from finding the right space and volunteers to raising money, getting the word out, defining community guidelines, and creating a space that is accessible and welcoming to all.

1. Find the right space

First things first, your bike kitchen needs a home. It doesn’t have to be fancy and it doesn’t have to be huge, but you’ll need enough space for some essential tools and for people to be able to comfortably work on their bikes. Depending on the kitchen’s offerings, you may also need space to store bike frames, spare parts, and ready-to-go bikes, but this is not necessary, especially when you’re getting started.

Catherine Hartzell, co-founder of the San Francisco (SF) Bike Kitchen, advises trying to find a rent-free or multi-purpose space.

“The bike kitchen will not be used all the time,” she says, “so sharing the space with another organization could work well. Basements of churches or other nonprofits are good places to start looking.”

If you can share another organization’s space, ideally rent-free, this minimizes expenses dramatically. Some other possible options include community centers, existing bike organization spaces, community tool sheds, or lending libraries.

Low-cost and mobile models

If you’re unable to find a space, or if you don’t want to be locked into a particular location, you can always create a mobile bike kitchen. This poses some interesting challenges in terms of hauling tools and supplies around, and letting people know where you’ll be, but using this pop-up style, you can just roll into different neighborhoods and set up, increasing the visibility of the kitchen and extending its reach into the community. The reduced overhead of not having a permanent space also enables you to create more programs and initiatives for getting bikes into the community.

Common Cycle, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, began in 2010 as a pop-up, mobile bike kitchen that made regular appearances at farmers markets and on campuses. Then, in 2018 they opened up a permanent community space just outside downtown Ann Arbor. Don’t rule out any potential possibilities when looking for a space, and be open to utilizing resources you may already have. For example, the Bozeman Bike Kitchen in Bozeman, Montana started in the founder’s garage, moved to a “chicken coop on school district property”, and now permanently resides in a building in an industrial park.

2. Tools

At the core of every bike kitchen is a collection of shared tools. To start building your collection of tools, ask bike shops and community members for donations, or do some initial fundraising events or campaigns to get enough tools to open the kitchen. The wish list of tools that would be nice to have in a bike kitchen is endless, but some of the essentials are: a wheel truing stand; a wide variety of wrenches; bearings; chain lube; grease; and clean-up supplies. See the bikecollectives.org wiki for a detailed list of necessary shop tools.

As you start to purchase tools, contact shops and dealers to get wholesale prices. Aim to get quality items that will last, because many hands will be using them.

On a related note, take time to lay out how you want the bike kitchen organized, as this will contribute to how comfortable people feel working in the space and how efficiently it runs. Think about the best workflow, most common repairs, etc.

3. Volunteers and staffing

Perhaps the most valuable asset your bike kitchen can have is a committed team of volunteers. It’s great if there’s money for paid staff, but most bike kitchens are volunteer-powered. As Hartzell points out, committed volunteers are essential, “You need people who want to commit to being there at least once a week.”

She adds that it’s nice to reward volunteers with parties, food, and social events. An additional perk for volunteers is being able to buy items at wholesale prices from distributors.

Before launching the bike kitchen, rally around a few committed people who understand the vision for the space. From there, interested volunteers will find you through word of mouth and by coming into the kitchen.

Keep communication open and expectations for staff and volunteers clear. A great way to do this is to create a volunteer handbook that lays out the vision, rules, and requirements of the organization. Rules may include: don’t take tools out of the shop; no drugs or alcohol in the shop; safety first; respect the space; respect the tools; respect each other; and have a senior member check work.

Numerous bike collectives, including the SLC Bicycle Collective, the Des Moines Bike Collective, Free Ride Pittsburgh, and the Fort Collins Bike Co-op have shared their handbooks so you can see how other organizations handle their guidelines. The main thing is to communicate expectations clearly to volunteers and lay out how rules are enforced. 

You will also want to have regular meetings to address issues that come up, brainstorm ways to support, strengthen, and grow the kitchen, and do community-building. Work parties, where people can socialize and get to know each other, are a good idea as well. Hartzell stresses the importance of having both meetings and social events.

“Have monthly staff meetings so everyone knows each other,” she says. “Provide time to discuss issues, but also time to socialize and eat food,” which she points out, should be paid for by the bike kitchen.

4. Organizational models and governance

What’s the organizational vision for your bike kitchen? Is it a cooperative? Is it a collective? Is it run by one or two people with an extended team of volunteers? Decide on your model, then research best practices.

Shareable’s guide on starting a worker co-op can help you get started with the creation of a coop. The Sustainable Economies Law Center is a great resource for all things cooperative, including their Think Outside the Boss manual for creating a cooperative.

Here are the seven principles that guide cooperatives around the world:

1. Voluntary and Open Membership
2. Democratic Member Control
3. Member Economic Participation
4. Autonomy and Independence
5. Education, Training, and Information
6. Cooperation among Cooperatives
7. Concern for Community

A collective is a group of people who share a common interest and/or vision. They differ from worker cooperatives as they are not necessarily focused on economic benefit. When you’re starting out, this may be a good model for your bike kitchen, but you can use cooperative principles and tools, such as democratic decision-making and concern for community as a guide for creating a healthy community.

Thinking about becoming a nonprofit? Here are some pros and cons.

Legalities

Do you need a business permit? Mission statement? These are things to research before you get started. The answer to these questions will depend on the size of the project, the vision for it, and whether you’re working under an already established organization. Although not particularly fun, getting these things taken care of early will save you headaches down the road.

Be sure to get liability insurance for the kitchen. If someone gets hurt in the shop or on one of the bikes and decides to sue, it could be the end of the kitchen or worse. Check out the Bike Collective wiki’s guide to bike kitchen insurance and why you should have it.

Challenges

As with any organization, challenges will arise. They may be rooted in finances, difficult personalities, lack of clear communication, varied expectations of what the bike kitchen is, commitment levels, theft, laziness, or a hundred different things. The key here is to catch these challenging situations before they get blown out of proportion. An ounce of prevention…and all that.

Regular meetings give people an opportunity to express grievances and get things out in the open. Beware, however, of the unending meeting. These are frustrating and will drive people away quickly. If something needs to be taken from a meeting to a more personal level, do so. 

If the issue remains after you’ve exhausted your communication skills and strategies, consider bringing in a mediator or unbiased third party to help resolve things. Many issues, however, will just need to be dealt with as they arise. As Hartzell says, “I think these are just things you will learn to deal with through experience.”

5. Funding

Like most things, the bike kitchen will need money. You can keep this need relatively small, or you may have a big vision that requires a steady flow of cash. Either way, funding the bike kitchen is one of the first things you’ll need to address. Fortunately, bike kitchens are one of the more financially sustainable sharing projects because they have a ready market. They offer the community a needed service that is expensive through conventional counterparts, such as service at bike shops or buying all the necessary tools oneself.

Funding will likely come from a variety of sources including community fundraising, support from local bicycle businesses, organizations and advocacy groups, bike kitchen memberships, and bike sales. Hartzell advises getting 501(c)(3) status, or getting another nonprofit to sponsor the kitchen.

If membership dues are part of your bike kitchen model, consider offering people an opportunity to volunteer in exchange for membership, so those who can’t afford membership aren’t excluded.

One common way to sustain a bike kitchen is to sell bikes and parts. If you plan to finance the kitchen this way, keep in mind that the goal is not to become a bike shop, but to be a community resource where people can pick up affordable bikes. Many bike kitchens sell affordable used parts and basic new parts.

Other funding sources can be capital campaigns including: microloans; grants; in-kind donations; local, state or federal support; crowdfunding; or large fundraising events with your membership. The SF Bike Kitchen has hosted a large fundraising event called Tour de Cupcake, where they ride to different locations and eat cupcakes. This event filled up well in advance and raised thousands each year for operations costs. You can also generate funds through the kitchen with classes, membership fees, shop rentals, and paid repairs.

For reference, here’s a rundown of the SF Bike Kitchen’s monthly expenses from its third year:

• Tools – $200
• Consumables – $100
• Volunteer Appreciation – $100
• Liability Insurance – $100
• Space – $1450
• TOTAL – $1950

Donations

Donations of bikes, tools, and parts can come from a variety of sources including community donations, bike shops, bicycle organizations, unclaimed bikes that local police are holding, city recycling, and dumps. Connect with these organizations to see what’s available in your area.

Drives

You can also host bike drives and tool drives to encourage the community at large to finally take that bike or those tools that have been sitting untouched in the garage for years, and pass them on to someone who can use them. Drives are also a good way to spread the word about the bike kitchen, clarify the vision for the project, do some outreach, and build community around the project.

Keeping used parts and bikes in circulation is an important aspect of a bike kitchen. Keeping usable resources out of landfills by repairing and reusing them should be a core part of your kitchen’s mission.

6. Programs for underserved communities

A bike kitchen, at its best, is an open, community-driven enterprise that is accessible and welcoming to all. This might just be a space that communicates that it is safe and open to all. Or, you may choose to have your bike kitchen focused on a particular community. 

For example, FenderBender in Detroit operates as “a women-, queer-, and trans-centered bicycle workspace, rooted in justice principles.” ColectiVelo in Oakland is an example of a no-cash, bilingual, community bike kitchen/collaborative made up of people from diverse backgrounds.

The idea behind these spaces is to create an environment where marginalized or underserved people feel welcome and empowered to learn about cycling, fix their bikes, and meet like-minded people. Many bike kitchens make a point of openly inviting and welcoming underserved and marginalized people into the space. The importance is that people who may be used to feeling unwelcome can find a community and cycling resources.

As ColectiVelo founder Morgan Kanninen put it, “A focus on marginalized people’s experiences can allow you to reduce barriers to the important services and resources that collectives provide.”

“Once you have that kind of inclusiveness,” she says, “it becomes possible for people to develop human connections in meaningful ways despite class, color, and other social divides.”

Kanninen stresses that once underserved people have shown an interest in your bike kitchen, be sure to draw them into the community.

“Just because people come to the shop doesn’t mean they’ll keep coming,” she says, “much less take on leadership that keeps it a vibrant, creative, healthy space for community.”

To be inclusive, make sure that the bike kitchen’s volunteers and staff represent the diversity you’d like to see in your community. Once the kitchen is up and running, have themed days, evenings, or events that cater to the specific needs, concerns, and interests of marginalized communities. For example, many bike kitchens have a femme, queer, and trans night because of the inherent gender discrepancies in access to knowledge of mechanics. This container gives them an opportunity to ask questions openly and also a place where they are more likely to feel safe in general.

Earn-a-bike program

One program you’ll want to consider offering is earn-a-bike, a program through which those who can’t afford to buy a bike can earn one by volunteering in the shop. You can modify the program to fit your particular needs. The bikecollectives.org wiki has a resource to get you started.

7. Getting the word out

Once everything is in place, it’s time to tell the community about the bike kitchen. Here’s where creativity, your network, your hustle, and any artistic talents the community may possess come into play. To get the word out, you’ll need to get information about the bike kitchen in front of people. Start with a web presence, an email address, and social media accounts. You can set up a free blog using a content management platform like WordPress. You can also talk to local bike advocacy groups, distribute fliers, create a newsletter, and ask friends and supporters to tell their networks. But no need to stop there.

Get creative. Is there a local band whose members are cycling enthusiasts? Hit them up to mention the bike kitchen. Is there a great poster artist among your group of friends? A nicely done poster will hang for longer, on a wider variety of walls, than a photocopied, black and white flier. Is there a community wiki or bulletin board for your town? List the bike kitchen with these types of things. Dip into existing resources and connections that the community already has and be specific with your ask. Do you want people to come into the space? Do you want people to donate time, bikes, or tools to the kitchen? Do you want people to come get a free bike? Let them know.

Bringing awareness to the bike kitchen is an ongoing job. Is there a volunteer or community member who is particularly adept at marketing, social media, press, etc? Make them your go-to PR person. Communicate the importance of keeping up on community outreach and communication. Make sure everyone knows that exciting news, interesting community tidbits, and great photos should be forwarded to this person so they can share them.

8. Building community

Now that the kitchen is set up, word is out, and your local cycling scene is one resource richer, it’s time to build and strengthen the community. A great way to do this is by hosting fun events to bring people together, create buzz, raise money, get media attention, create new connections, and put the new community into action.

Kanninen says that community-building can take many forms and requires both personal and organizational work.

“It’s about relationship-building between organizations and developing the identity of your group in the context of the populations it serves,” she says. “Be participatory and transparent in the way the shop is run, and allow the kitchen to seek bigger goals than just getting bikes fixed.” She continues, “Develop partnerships with those other projects in the community that the kitchen sees as admirable and good at community building.”

Here are a few community-building ideas: 

• host a concert in the space
• organize a group ride (themed or otherwise)
• set up skillshares for people to share what they know
• invite local authors, activists, city leaders, etc., into the space to talk about what they’re up to and how the cycling community can help
• throw a potluck
• plan a neighborhood beautification project
• have an art or design contest to create materials and merchandise for the space.

These are general ideas to get the ball rolling, but the most successful ideas are the ones best suited to your space, so dial into those events that cater to the unique needs and desires of the local community.

Hartzell explains that community-building has to come from the community already involved in the bike kitchen. People will invest time in organizing events they care about, like the Tour de Cupcake. SF Bike Kitchen also provides food to its volunteers on shifts, to get them to stick around and make friends.

Big picture

Both in the creation stage and the up-and-running stage, keep the mission for your bike kitchen visible and known to all who participate. This will help guide your choices and inform the community of exactly what your priorities are. And have fun! After all, you’re creating a valuable resource to get bikes into the community. “I like organizations like the bike kitchen,” says Hartzell, “because they empower people to be self-sufficient. I like when people learn that they have the power to easily solve a problem that seems insurmountable.” She continues, “I like the community that builds around something like the bike kitchen, and the culture that develops around a volunteer-run organization.”

She adds that, through collaboration, embracing diversity, and playing to people’s strengths, a bike kitchen can shine. “People have different motivations for being involved, and they contribute different things and to different extents, and somehow it all works out.”

Additional resources

• Bike Collective Network is a hub for not-for-profit bicycle projects to connect and share knowledge
• Bike Collectives Wiki
• View the Bike Collective’s Think Tank Archives

This article was originally published on November 18, 2014 and was significantly updated by Jennifer Foley on March 13, 2024.

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While many people were able to work from home, others—compelled by the nature of their employment—were given three choices: Put their lives on the line, be financially crushed, or both.

While the dominant U.S. economic system operates on this principle of persistent financial coercion, there is (and always have been) an alternative way to organize individuals into collectives providing essential services, without the need for coercion: mutual aid networks.

At its core, a mutual aid network is a volunteer system of people helping people and communities helping communities.

Although the pandemic brought it top-of-mind for many, mutual aid is not new. Systemically oppressed communities, especially Black communities in the U.S., have continuously used mutual aid networks to share essential services.

Scholar Jessica Gordon Nembhard says in her book, Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice, that mutual aid societies were a cornerstone of African-American communities. A notable one is the Free African Society, formed in Philadelphia a decade after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. By 1830, more than a hundred mutual aid societies existed in Philadelphia alone.

So drawing from existing knowledge instead of reinventing the wheel, this article is a guide to starting or increasing the capacity of, a mutual aid network.

Start small and start anywhere with a core team

It’s OK to not have a grand plan to save the world when starting a mutual aid network. In fact, it’s better if you don’t—mutual aid is a complex, emergent process where each member’s abilities and ideas are respected. It also operates on a local scale. Not knowing all the answers—and being able to admit that—is a good start.

Effective organizing is first and foremost about people and the strong relationships among them. The first thing to do is to develop a core team. Organizing requires spending a lot of time together, so think about people you trust and who are committed to showing up.

In March 2020, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hosted a conversation with activist and mutual aid organizer Mariame Kaba on how to start a network like this. The resources discussed in this training were compiled into a very useful and concise Mutual Aid 101 Toolkit, accessible to anyone for free. This toolkit advises that if you don’t know what to do at first, start by asking someone close to you to help brainstorm and make connections that will help you understand community needs. After that, reach out and try to form a small group of five to 20 people.

A common tool to use to think about who to reach out to is a pod map. A pod map is a simple way of visualizing the people in your life that you’re already connected to—people who can provide for your basic needs and who, in turn, you can provide for. Pod mapping also allows you to visualize the individuals and organizations that you could get in contact with and deepen relationships with.

There’s a great pod mapping resource created by Rebel Sidney Black, adapted in an open-source spirit from a tool developed by the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective to deal with harm in communities.

Make local connections

The Mutual Aid 101 Toolkit suggests clearly identifying the support area and to start making connections.

Madison-based organizer Stephanie Rearick is a co-founder of the HUMANs (Humans United in Mutual Aid Networks) global network of mutual aid groups. She says, “We are about making the longer-term systemic change… any time we can build more of a commons and pull things out of a need to be transactional, we think that’s the way to find the most abundance,” said Rearick. “We all have value, everyone deserves to have their needs met, and we all have something to provide.”

To make connections, the toolkit suggests questions that can help discover the needs and abilities of neighbors, like: “What are your hobbies and interests?” and “What are your needs?” “What are you afraid of losing?” “What do you need help with?” It also has some useful suggestions about how to handle larger groups.

Build on existing networks

Reach out to existing organizations serving underrepresented and vulnerable populations in your community. These groups may have the capacity to offer services or could help by tapping into their existing community connections. Mutual Aid Hub has a searchable map to find groups near you.

Taking the time to seek out these groups is vital. Likely, there are already groups near you.

Maintain regular, deep communication

Once your network has grown to connect people, organizations, and communities, one-on-one communication will remain important. Although social media, email lists, and blog posts can spread messages far and wide, it is wise to also maintain the practice of deepening connections through one-on-one conversation.

This type of communication has better outcomes when mobilizing people, seeking information about needs and resources, and spreading a specific message. It also reinforces the cohesion of the network.

Phone trees are often employed so conversations can happen quickly and efficiently while dividing effort among members. The toolkit links to a resource on how to build a phone tree, which should be established and used regularly.

Adapt to community needs

A mutual aid group should be an adaptive organism, designed to be responsive to community needs. “One of the things that I’m pretty proud that we’ve done is be[ing] really responsive to community needs and figur[ing] out how to respond to those needs in a really quick way and not being bogged down in systems,” said Juliana Garcia, a facilitator of Mutual Aid Tompkins around Ithaca, New York.

Their network began as an information clearinghouse and then grew into a hub for making connections. “I think our role has largely been networking and collecting resources,” said Josh Dolan, who is also a facilitator with Mutual Aid Tompkins. Dolan said community members often self-organize using Mutual Aid Tompkins’ Facebook pages. “All the physical work is being done by volunteers.”

Not only should the activities of the group be adaptive but so should the very structure of the group. From groups of mask-makers to cabinet-builders to an older adults working group, many of the collectives and network programs developed organically.

“The mask-makers are a really good example of that,” Dolan said, referring to the Tompkins Mask Makers, a collective in Tompkins County that sold handmade masks for the region and using their profits to provide masks for those in need. “I know we were kind of working on that initially but then people that have sewing skills and entrepreneurial skills kinda came together and it kind of took off organically… I think it was so successful because at that point, people just wanted to figure out how to help and that was something that people could do at home with the skills that they already have.”

Tap into community resources

Since mutual aid is such a timeless principle, there are ample free resources available that can make starting your own network easier. In addition to the tools mentioned above, another resource for ideas and inspiration is Big Door Brigade. Offering legal support and bail funds, housing, and childcare, the Seattle-based group has links to organizations across a wide range of community providers.

Mutual Aid Networks also has resources, including legal, social, and financial frameworks to help build and maintain networks. The final page of the Mutual Aid 101 Toolkit has an additional list.

If you want to take your mutual aid network to the next level, check out how STL Mutual Aid Fund made it easier for neighbors to help one another and what they’ve learned along the way.

This article was originally published on July 7th, 2020, and was significantly updated by Jennifer Foley in January 2024.

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Here’s a fun fact: Abraham Lincoln didn’t go to law school. He independently studied the law, registered with the Sangamon County Court in Illinois, and passed an oral examination by a panel of attorneys. He was then given his license to practice law. More recently, Kim Kardashian was able to take and pass the bar exam without attending one day of law school as well.

In four states, you can still take this non-law-school route to becoming a lawyer. Vermont, Washington, California, and Virginia all allow people to become lawyers by “reading the law,” which, simply put, means studying and apprenticing in the office of a practicing attorney or judge. Currently, New York requires at least one year of law school experience, plus an apprenticeship program, and five more states (Oregon, Georgia, North Dakota,  Maine, and Indiana) are considering adding apprenticeship paths as well.

The Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) has been a leader in educating people about legal apprenticeships. Their Movement Lawyering page offers a big-picture glimpse into the legal apprenticeship movement with information, resources, advice, and first-hand accounts from both supervising attorneys and apprentices.

Using information found on SELC’s website, as well as interviews with legal apprentices and SELC’s co-founder Janelle Orsi, Shareable created the following how-to for becoming a lawyer without going to law school. Rules and requirements vary from state to state, so check your local law, but here are some practical tips, best practices, and virtual cheers of encouragement.

Why Do It

There are numerous benefits to taking the legal apprenticeship route to becoming a lawyer. They include: making becoming a lawyer more accessible to a wider demographic of people; gaining years of legal practice prior to becoming a lawyer; avoiding law school debt, which can run hundreds of thousands of dollars; learning at a pace and style that works for you; studying in the area where you want to practice law; and building a network of future clients, mentors, colleagues, and legal professionals.

Receiving a license to practice law without crushing debt also allows one to take on legal work that is centered on building and strengthening community rather than making lots of money to pay off loans. This is a truly radical aspect of the legal apprenticeship program.

As Chris Tittle, the former director of organizational resilience at SELC, writes, “Laws protect those who write and defend them. So, in a country where over 88 percent of lawyers are white, 70 percent are men, and 75 percent are over the age of 40, is it surprising that our legal system repeatedly fails to serve the interests of youth, women, communities of color, and other underrepresented groups?”

SELC’s Chris Tittle and legal apprentices Yassi Eskandari-Qajar and Christina Oatfield

The Nuts and Bolts

The requirements for legal apprenticeships vary by state. In California, for example, apprentices are required to work and study with a practicing attorney 18 hours per week for four years. Supervising attorneys must also give monthly exams and bi-annual progress reports. Apprentices also take a law students exam (dubbed “The Baby Bar”) after the first year. At the end of their apprenticeship, they’re eligible to take the full Bar Exam.

The fees associated with the apprenticeship route are a tiny fraction of law school tuition. Christina Oatfield, who apprenticed with SELC co-founder Jenny Kassan (and went on to work with the SELC for almost 8 years and currently provides legal services to Shareable), broke down the costs in California (updated to reflect 2024 costs):

• Initial registration fee: $158
• Fee paid to the California Bar every six months: $30*
• First-Year Law Students Exam: $600–$800 each time. (The pass rate is around 20% so many students take the exam more than once.)
• Bar exam at the end of the four years: $1,000 each time.
• Books and other study materials: $1,000+.

The total cost can be as low as a few thousand dollars. As Oatfield said in 2013, “Not bad compared to law school tuition.”

*Current fees could not be confirmed by the time we reprinted this story.

Find a Supervising Attorney

The first thing you need to do is to find an attorney or judge with whom you can apprentice. This may prove to be a challenge.

“This has been a stumbling block for some people who hope to participate in the Law Office Study Program,” said Oatfield, “as some attorneys are wary of taking on the responsibility of supervising an apprentice.” However, many attorneys who have worked through the program (like Oatfield herself) are more likely to take on apprentices once they hit their five-year mark. 

In California, the supervising attorney needs to have been practicing law in the state for at least five years, and they need to spend at least five hours per week directly supervising you. Oatfield advised finding a supervising attorney who is practicing in areas of law that you want to learn about, and eventually practice in yourself.

Supervising an apprentice requires a long-term commitment of time and energy, as the attorney needs to administer and review exams, provide guidance, and offer feedback on essays. But there are benefits to doing so, including improved skill at explaining complex legal topics; the opportunity to revisit legal questions and topics; bringing new skills, as well as linguistic or cultural competencies, into practice via an apprentice; the potential to learn and grow in response to feedback from apprentices; and the joy and satisfaction that comes with collaborating on a meaningful project.

Orsi notes that people who already work in legal organizations and law offices are probably the best positioned to find supervising attorneys and start apprenticing. Oatfield, as well as Yassi Eskandari-Qajar, another former SELC legal apprentice, both volunteered for SELC before they decided to pursue legal apprenticeships.

“[W]e had already built relationships with the attorneys who are supervising us now, and developed some very basic familiarity with their areas of specialty,” Oatfield said. “I think a potential supervising attorney wants reassurance that the prospective apprentice is really committed to the study of law — and their particular area of expertise — because it can take many months, or even years, of apprenticeship before the apprentice has the potential to contribute back to the attorney’s practice.”

Once you’ve found an attorney, there are some simple forms that both of you must fill out. Check with your state to see what paperwork you’ll need.

Work While Apprenticing

Yes, it is possible to work another job while apprenticing. Or, better yet, find a paid position within the legal system. That way, you’re furthering your hands-on experience while learning the law. The additional exposure, said Eskandari-Qajar, also helps to contextualize one’s studies.

She experienced a “serious learning curve” as she was getting up-to-speed with legal terminology. This meant that she had to slow her pace and devote more outside time as she was building a foundational understanding of the law and legal terms.

“[N]ew apprentices should play it by ear and be prepared to give more time and energy toward the beginning…if they are like me and new to the field.” She continued, “I imagine that, when I am preparing for the first-year law students exam, I will have to really ramp up the time I give to the apprenticeship, and do so again prior to taking the bar exam. If you can strike an arrangement with your employer that is flexible around those times, that would be ideal.”

Orsi points out that apprenticing only requires 18 hours per week of work and/or study, and the idea is that the apprentice should not be required to study beyond that. But if the apprentice spends 18 hours doing legal work that doesn’t prepare them well for the bar exam, they should make extra time to study the bar exam topics.

The inspiration for LikeLincoln. Photo by Ron Cogswell (CC)

Practical Tips

For Eskandari-Qajar, one of the most important tips she offered is to make time. “Even if you have a job in the field of law, there will be things that aren’t covered by either the apprenticeship or work,” she said. “For those, you have to hit the books.”

Orsi advised that apprentices — especially those with weak writing skills — do a lot of writing, as two-thirds of the bar exam is essay writing. In law school, most exams involve essays, so students get a lot of practice.

“[A] key skill for passing the bar exam, and for practicing law,” Orsi said, “is the ability to write well and organize information clearly. Apprentices with strong writing skills will have a significant edge, and will be able to spend more time doing practical work, and less time writing practice exams.”

Studying and Test-Taking

The two solid days of intense test-taking make the bar exam extremely stressful; Orsi offered advice to those preparing for it:

“My theory is that it’s good to develop positive associations with test taking, if possible,” she said. “So each time I give a monthly exam to the apprentices, I try to do something fun or silly, before, during, or after. Last month, I brought a massage chair to the office on exam day.”

She said that she’s unsure if these things will “ultimately reduce the torture of the bar exam,” but figures there’s no harm in doing fun or silly things, so it’s worth a try.

When Orsi was studying for the bar exam, she had audio courses that she listened to while hiking and biking. She also wrote dozens of songs that outlined the 12 bar exam topics to the tune of 12 different karaoke tracks, including “I Will Survive” and “Bohemian Rhapsody.” In the final weeks before the exam, she got up and sang the songs every day.

“I did everything possible to make it enjoyable,” she said. “I did not do what most people do, which is pay $3,000–$5,000 for an intensive bar exam prep course. However,” she continued, “I might actually recommend that apprentices do take such a course, because they may benefit from re-learning the material in a classroom context, and from receiving significant input on their practice exams.”

Challenges

For as many benefits as it offers, LikeLincoln advises that the apprenticeship route isn’t for everyone. Since the apprenticeship option is not offered nor recognized by all states, there are geographic concerns. Law school libraries also offer a host of resources that apprentices can’t access, and some big law firms may be more inclined to hire lawyers who have gone to law school.

One of the benefits of law school is being surrounded by other law students. Developing a peer circle is a good way to gauge your progress and find support during challenging and stressful times. 

You’ll also need to determine if you’re the kind of person who would do better in law school than as a legal apprentice. LikeLincoln advises law school if you: need a structured curriculum and learn well by listening to lectures; enjoy the social aspects of school and the academic side of law school, with its highly intellectual arguments; want the prestige of a law degree; or want to work in a big law firm or teach in a law school.

The Big Picture

For self-starters who want to jump right into legal work, becoming a legal apprentice is an attractive alternative to law school. But as Eskandari-Qajar reminded us, this is a big commitment, not to be taken lightly.

“Even though you are not dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars on this educational path, you are investing four years of your time to become a lawyer,” she said. “Remember to keep your eye on the prize, and don’t forget why you chose to take this path instead of taking other paths.”

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