I have learned so much from this process and from each person in it, I am overwhelmed with gratitude and admiration for everyone! I am looking forward to our Team Tuesday reunion in December. I have found the weekly check-ins incredibly generative and a great source of support/accountability for this work.
I have mentioned to Felipe that part of this process for me is about learning how co-ops work so that I can support efforts here in Miami to build CPA, and also because I am interested in a possible Florida restorative justice (RJ) practitioners’ co-op that is focused on identifying, recruiting, training, and providing opportunities for youth (especially youth of color) to grow their own RJ practice skills so that they can be financially compensated for their ongoing RJ facilitation work in communities around the state.
Next steps in south Florida:
- For CPA Miami, I am looking forward to following Juan Francisco’s lead,
along with the leadership of his organization, Future Partners. My hope is to
be of use where it makes sense as I am able! I know that between Juan Francisco’s
personality and business acumen, and Future Partners’ role in the Miami community,
the outlook for CPA here is extremely sunny!
- I am hopeful that there will be opportunities to connect Barry University as a possible anchor institution, as well as building relationships with congregations affiliated with Miami PACT and also helping us get connected with folks who are doing great environmental/energy work in Florida (a whacky regulatory environment!).
- And, I am hopeful that through the BE Lab at Barry, I can help identify and recruit students (particularly first-generation students of color from linguistically diverse and low-income communities in south Florida) who could eventually be vendors for the CPA venture in Miami.
- For the Restorative Justice worker co-op,
- I need to following with Ron at tilde to see if he would be willing to share their initial budget with me. I have no idea what is required for this kind of co-op start-up budget (when we spoke, he focused mainly on the cost of purchasing equipment for the translation services, but there must have been other expenses related to marketing/advertising, accounting, and office space?).
- Late January 2020 is the FRJA (Florida Restorative Justice Association) meeting, which will be an opportunity to publicly pitch the co-op to the most likely members.
- Of course, I anticipate that there will be a lot of individual meetings leading up to this gathering, beginning with a meeting next week with two RJ facilitators/community organizers in Miami who have a lot of influence among youth doing RJ work in the Miami area.
Depending on how the meeting goes at FRJA, I will have a better sense of the need/interest in this potential co-op in Florida. At that point, it would be awesome to get CPA’s advice (and partnership?) on how to move forward, particularly around funding relationships.
CPA Incubator 