Just Constr. Builders Delegation to the Deep South

Support us in constructing buildings for organizations led-by and supportive-of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color(BIPOC) in our communities. We have a caravan of carpenters ready to hit the road in March 2021 to work with Cooperation Jackson and then the Ndn Bayou Food Forest.

THE PROJECTS

First we’re going to Jackson, Mississippi to spend a week working with Cooperation Jackson. “Cooperation Jackson’s basic theory of change is centered on the position that organizing and empowering the structurally under and unemployed sectors of the working class, particularly from Black and Latino communities, to build worker organized and owned cooperatives will be a catalyst for the democratization of our economy and society overall.” As the co-op acquires homes and buildings from negligent landlords, we'll be offering our carpentry skills to get those spaces livable. We’ll be working on two houses that the co-op has purchased - beginning with replacing windows, some structural repairs, and running plumbing and electric. 

Then we head to Rayne, Louisiana to work with the Ndn Bayou Food Forest. This land project began as an indigenous-women-led resistance to the Bayou Bridge Pipeline, the southern-most leg of the infamous Dakota Access Pipeline through Standing Rock, and has now been working to grow and build systems to heal the Earth and sustain life. “We want to make food free. That means diversifying local production - a field that once grew only sugarcane for fuel ethanol now grows avocados, sweet potatoes, mulberries, bananas, beans, kale, figs, catfish, okra, watermelon, squash, turmeric, basil, broccoli, cabbage, collards, and more.” We’ll be finishing up their common shower house, working on their nursery, and building a small cabin on the property.

YOUR CONTRIBUTION

A contribution to this project would help the participants with gas for driving, food for the crew, an emergency fund, insurance for tools, and some materials. What we have left over will get split between the two recipient organizations and Just Construction. Anything helps and is greatly appreciated!

BACKGROUND

Just Construction is working on the built environment of a more just future, focusing on social justice and environmental harmony. We intend to offer building projects for low cost or free to organizations uplifting BIPOC communities. We hope to make homes and buildings affordable for these movements by offering our building skills, offsetting material costs with donations, and will teach our skills in an effort to further empower each other.

Vermonters like to say “we welcome refugees”, but where are they going to live? Where are they going to keep their chickens?! We believe that the more infrastructure we can create for leaders of color the more we can not only make good on Vermonters’ word, but we can expand the capacity for leadership in the twin climate and racist crises. The team we bring down south will come back galvanized for the projects we’ve got lined up for the spring and summer in Vermont. Get in touch if you want to help! We can accept tax exempt donations and in-kind donations of building supplies, tools, and of course volunteer labor.

Thanks in advance for all your support.