Community Welfare System

FOUNDER'S PILOT COHORT

Building Parallel Systems: The Intensive

Five live days working directly with us on your organization's model: how the Community Welfare System can strengthen your structure, open new financial opportunity, deepen community involvement, and help your work outlast any one person holding it.

Nov 9–13, 2026 · 11:00 AM–1:30 PM CT · Live on Zoom · 20 seats · Applications close Oct 9

Why We Built This

For a long time we taught the Community Welfare System in two-hour workshops, and every one of them ran out of time. People arrived with a working organization and specific questions about it, and we kept reaching the useful part right as the clock ended.Building Parallel Systems: The Intensive gives you the time those workshops never had, five days, live, working through your organization's model pillar by pillar, not a lecture.

The Week, Day by Day

Every day follows the same rhythm: a short pre-read, a live session, a pillar audit on your own organization, and a private reflection.

MONDAY

Foundations

The history of parallel systems, the practice-vs-system distinction, the four-pillar overview, and a baseline audit of where your organization stands today.

TUESDAY

Pillar 1: Shared Leadership

Written roles, rotating terms, and a Community Review Circle. What to protect in your current structure, what to adapt, what to add.

WEDNESDAY

Pillar 2: Mutual Aid Resource Pool

A resource pool rooted in mutual aid, distinct from a rapid relief fund. How it's held, sized, and distributed.

THURSDAY

Pillar 3: Operational Programs

Turning the patterns your pool reveals into defined programs, and funding that fits your organization's actual values.

FRIDAY

Pillar 4 & Synthesis

Organized community participation, then combining all four audits into one blend plan and a First Step for the next 30 days.

Who This Is For

You've already built something real, a nonprofit, a mutual aid effort, an organization with staff and a board. This week gives you a blueprint to weave into it: keep what works, add what's missing, adjust what's straining.

NONPROFITS

Move toward a structure where community members have more say, without giving up your board's legal standing.

MUTUAL AID & GRASSROOTS

Give the practice you already run a structure durable enough to outlast burnout, turnover, or a single founder stepping away.

INSTITUTIONAL LEADERS

Bring your organization closer to the community it serves, and open funding conversations shaped by your own values.

Where This Comes From

The Community Welfare System is anti-capitalist by principle, rooted in generations of parallel building: mutual aid societies, freedmen's aid networks, the Black Panther Party's survival programs.Its clearest ancestor is Fannie Lou Hamer's Freedom Farm Cooperative, founded in 1969 in Sunflower County, Mississippi. She held land and decisions in common, pooled resources and lent them forward instead of giving once and moving on, and built a program meant to outlast the crisis that started it. That's the blueprint this model is built on.

How We Protect What You Share

Auditing your own structure means talking about what works and what strains, money, conflict, staffing, decisions. That takes real trust.

  • Your written audit stays yours. What you share aloud is always your choice.

  • A confidentiality agreement governs the week, before anything else begins.

  • Breakout pods of 3–4 organizations, grouped so direct competitors don't land together.

  • Recording covers only our teaching segments, never breakout pods or audit sharing.

  • One private 30-minute session per organization, for whatever you'd rather not workshop in the group.

Recognized For The Work This Comes From

This year, the Black Lives Matter Global Network named the Community Welfare System its 2026 Builder of the Year. Over 1,000 people have downloaded the implementation worksheet, more than 600 subscribe to the newsletter, and over 200 have registered for a workshop.

FOUNDER'S PILOT COHORT

$1,000

per organization · 20 seats total

  • Five live days, Nov 9–13

  • Direct, live access, not recorded video

  • A private 30-minute session with us

  • A rate we won't offer again once this moves to standard pricing

Applications close Friday, October 9.
Accepted organizations notified by October 16.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is this recorded?

We record only the teaching segments we lead. Recording stops during breakout pods and any discussion where your organization is the subject. You appear on camera only with your consent.

What if $1,000 doesn't fit our budget right now?

Tell us on the application. We're leaving room to talk it through for organizations that are a strong fit but tight on funds this cycle.

What if we don't want to share our internal structure with other organizations?

Your written audit is always private by default. What you say out loud is entirely your choice, and every organization gets a private 30-minute session for anything you'd rather not bring to the group.

What happens after the five days?

You leave with a completed audit of your current structure, a blend plan for the pillars that matter most, and one concrete First Step for the next 30 days. From there, it's yours to run with, and we're a resource if you want to go further.

Is this connected to Seeds Worth Sowing?

The Community Welfare System is a standalone framework, built out of real programmatic experience but not synonymous with any one organization. This Intensive is taught by The CWS Team.

There are 20 seats at this pilot rate.

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.

Applications close Friday, October 9.

COMMUNITY WELFARE SYSTEM™

© 2026 Community Welfare System™. Created by The CWS Team. All rights reserved.