Category
Policy/Grassroots Politics
Description (click to expand)
Founded by and for formerly incarcerated and marginalized Black people in Chicago, Equity and Transformation (EAT) strives to uplift the faces, voices, and power of individuals that operate within the informal economy. These are the bucket boys who we pass on the way to the train every day, the DVD bootlegger at your local barber shop, the person selling loose cigarettes at two for a dollar in front of the local liquor store, and the trans and cisgender commercial sex workers in our communities. To create a more democratic society, we need strategies that can help society’s most disenfranchised people change the social and economic conditions affecting their lives. By mobilizing workers in the informal economy to advance their own interests in the public decision-making arena, we can increase Black engagement in our democracy, influence decision makers, build authentic social and economic equity, and create safer communities.