Boston Ujima Project (Ujima) was founded in 2016 and has been incubated and fiscally sponsored by the Center for Economic Democracy (CED). Ujima is a democratic, member-run organization building a cooperative business, arts, and investment ecosystem with a mission to return wealth to working-class communities of color as a pathway to well-being and rectifying the challenges often faced in under-resourced communities of color (ie. gentrification, poverty, homelessness, lack of food access, unemployment, and lack of healthcare). Ujima is not just reimagining our economic system, it’s rebuilding the economic system holistically and influencing initiatives around the country. The year 2023 could best be described as a year of vigorous growth for Ujima. Its Ujima Fund made an unprecedented deployment of five investments to BIPOC-owned small businesses and cooperatives amounting to more than $1 million–the highest annual distribution to date. Ujima has grown to more than 900 members, organized through five active committees. It is adding two new committees to focus on publications and member fund management to expand the initiative’s operational scope. In October 2023, Ujima convened its inaugural conference, the Assembly of Black Possibilities. The twice-sold-out conference gathered over 150 Black innovators, funders, capital investors, artisans, and thinkers. Ujima continues to serve as a thought leader and an investment fund model that demonstrates full accountability to the communities it serves. In June 2024, three members of the Ujima team joined us on AmbitioUS’ ReMEMBER: The FUTURE is at STAKE Southern Immersive Learning Journey, where they shared their community-stewarded wealth-building model with other participants. AmbitioUS provided Ujima $75,000 in one year of operating support and an additional $4,000 investment for their participation in AmbitioUS’ ReMEMBER: The FUTURE is at STAKE Southern Immersive Learning Journey.