For more information, e-mail Gloria Robinson at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call the ONE DC office at (202) 232-2915.

• Sustainability Committee Meeting: Monday, January 23rd at 5:30 p.m. at ONE DC's office, 614 S Street, NW.
• Kelsey Gardens Tenant Association Meeting: Tuesday, January 31st at 6pm in New Community Church, 614 S Street, NW.
• : Wednesday, February 1st at 6 p.m. at ONE DC's office, 614 S Street, NW. Join the ONE DC Movement to learn about the history, mission, vision, and values of ONE DC.  Popular education and storytelling models of learning will be used in the orientation. Let's have FUN building a movement in DC! Please RSVP to Gloria at grobinson@onedconline or Dominic at dmoulden@onedconline
• : Thursday, February 2nd at ONE DC's office at 6:30 p.m., 614 S Street, NW. Please RSVP to Dominic at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
• Shared Leadership Team Training and Meeting: Saturday: February 4th at 10 a.m. at ONE DC's office, 614 S Street NW.
• 2012 Annual Meeting: Saturday, March 10, 2012 at 1:00pm. Location will be confirmed in the February issue. The meeting is open to all, but only members who are current with their 2012 dues will be able to vote or run for a board seat. Dues may be mailed to ONE DC, P.O. Box 26049, Washington, DC, 20001 or dropped off at ONE DC's office, 614 S St. NW, Rear Carriage House. For more information, contact Gloria Robinson at 202-232-2915.

While we celebrate the new year, we realize that as the weather gets colder and utility bills rise, many tenants and homeowners are in serious trouble maintaining their homes. Families in need should call theHomelessness Prevention Hotline for more information at 202-667-7339.

The Occupy Movement's bold and inventive methods of confronting the one percent are how the movement got its name: by "occupying" spaces that challenge the moral accountability of the powers that be. This movement has swept the world and can easily be argued to have roots outside U.S. borders.  Within the United States, the movement's 1970 antecedents, more frequently referred to as "take-overs," have frequently been overlooked. The most contemporary Occupy expressions have been embodied in the Take Back the Land movement (TBL), which has been able to make concrete differences in the lives of those most acutely affected by the indiscretions of the one percent.

On January 26th, the Institute for Policy Studies invites you to a cutting edge and interactive forum featuring one TBL leader, Max Rameau.

Accompanied by a video presentation, Mr. Rameau will lead a discussion about the historical context of this movement; an analysis of how the Occupy movement relates to TBL; and the differences, similarities, and synergies between the Occupy movement and TBL. An integral part of the discussion will be about race, class, and international issues.

Max Rameau is a Haitian-born, Pan-African theorist, campaign strategist, organizer, and author. After moving to Miami, Florida, in 1991, Mr. Rameau began organizing around a broad range of issues impacting low-income Black communities, including immigrant rights (particularly those of Haitian immigrants), economic justice, LGBTQ rights, and voting rights (particularly for ex-felons and police abuse).

As the housing "boom" took off, giving way to the devastating impacts of gentrification, Mr. Rameau shifted his attention to housing. In thesummer of 2006 he helped found the organization which eventually became known as Take Back the Land, to address "land" issues in the Black community. Mr. Rameau relocated to Washington, DC, in 2011, where he lives with his family and is the director of Movement Catalyst, a movement strategy and support organization.

The Occupy to Liberate and Take Back the Land meeting will be held on January 26th, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., at the Festival Center, 1640 Columbia Road, NW.

For this meeting, there is a suggested donation of $5 to help cover the cost of the event; however, no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

On December 2, ONE DC members and staff joined with Occupy DC on the corner of 7th and T Streets, NW, to protest Wells Fargo's investment in the GEO Group, Inc., a large, private prison company and owner of the Rivers Correctional Institution in Winton, NC. Rivers houses many DC prisoners-all of whom are, because DC's lacks official "state" status, under federal control. Seven members of ONE DC -- Ron, Kwasi, Linda, Chi Chi, N'ya, Abby, and Dominic -- assembled with the other protesters on the sidewalk outside the bank and urged passers-by to move their money out of Wells Fargo and stop subsidizing the incarceration of DC residents in a for-profit institution.

The prison-industrial complex cuts to the core of social, economic, and racial justice. The December 2 action represents one of the most recent in a series of efforts by ONE DC to engage the Occupy DC movement in a campaign to "Liberate DC" -- a campaign that is inclusive of people of color and long-term residents of Washington, DC. The Liberate DC movement seeks responsive action to the needs and demands of those residents most affected by unemployment, poverty, lack of access to resources, and displacement.

2011 marks five years since ONE DC's formation. On December 9, more than fifty members and supporters of ONE DC gathered at the African American Civil War Museum to celebrate five years of working for social justice in DC. The celebration included an appreciation of ONE DC's members and a shared vision of a path forward for the next five years. The theme of this year's celebration was "Another World Is Possible."

Members commemorated five years of accomplishments and participated in a collaborative exercise to orient ONE DC's strategy and goals going forward.

In 2011, ONE DC has achieved significant victories: securing a position on the oversight committee of the Marriott Hotel's Workforce Services Intermediary Committee; continuing to hold the Progression Place development accountable to DC's First Community Benefits Agreement and to former and current residents of the Shaw community; and working with participants in Occupy/Liberate DC to build broader coalitions for social justice in the city.

 All of these successes and more are possible thanks to the continued  support and involvement of our members. ONE DC members participated in a  visionary exercise, sharing what they would like to see occur in our world by 2017:

• Affordable housing for everyone
• An end to food deserts and health disparities in DC
• Quality education   
• Sustainable jobs for all
• Food cooperatives
• Credit unions 
• "abundance, not scarcity."

When we work together with a shared vision and understanding, another world is possible. We look forward to five more great years!

As ONE DC celebrates five years of creating equity, advocating justice and cultivating leadership, we assert with confidence: another world is possible! ONE DC is creating another world, and we have been doing it with you the past five years.  We have been learning that ONE DC and its allies can build an alternative world when we are the change we want to see -- when we are the leaders we have been waiting for.

Building shared leadership at ONE DC has taught us several key lessons we want to  share with you:

• Each of us has leadership qualities, and none of us has all of them
• Leadership must be nurtured, cultivated, supported, challenged and shared.
• We are all interdependent: we each bring our gifts and talents together to accomplish the work.  None of us can do this alone, and our collective effort always creates more than we can create alone.
• Individual and collective effort requires discipline and unleashes creativity.
• We build trusting relationships; speak truth with love; show compassion for mistakes; we are all growing.
• A dynamic, effective organization is a learning organization. We must be willing life-long learners.
• Accountability is essential: we hold ourselves and others responsible to honor our commitments, ask for help when we need it, and offer support to others.
• Respecting each opinion, listening with an open mind, being willing to be challenged and to change all make us stronger and more effective.
• Critical thinking is essential, but just being critical is not enough.
• Developing and practicing creative solutions and building alternatives now is the mark of leadership!  We walk the road as we make it.

 We have worked to create "liberated zones." In the past five years, ONE DC has strived to facilitate tenant-owned building conversions and cooperatives and helped lead efforts to keep buildings truly affordable housing for low-income and working families. ONE DC won the first community benefits agreement in DC, which included financial grants to community organizations. We continue to hold policy makers and developers accountable to the true meaning of the term "affordable," and we are advocating for keeping jobs in DC for DC residents and using commercial space in DC for small-business owners in DC. ONE DC nurtures community leaders who represent our values of grassroots organizing, democratic leadership, shared power and resources, 

cooperative work, collective action, human dignity, freedom from oppression, and systemic change for a just, fair, and equitable society.

ONE DC's five-year history gives a glimpse of what organized and conscious people can create together!  As you have walked with us over these past five years of activity and victory, we hope you will continue to be inspired to join us in building and expanding our community over the next five years and more. There is much more ahead with your support.

Sincerely,
The Leadership Team, ONE DC