Dear Friend, 

This year included a powerful win for DC vendors, and we are proud to celebrate the leaders of that campaign at the I'll Be There Awards: Beloved Community Incubator and Genesis Lemus. 

Beloved Community Incubator is a worker self-directed nonprofit that provides sliding-scale support for worker-owned cooperatives, collective projects, business owners, and freelancers in the Washington, DC metro region.

Since 2018, a diverse group of more than 50 Black, Latine, and Indigenous DC street vendors have come together to form Vendedores Unidos/Vendors United (VU), a street vendor community-union that works to defend street vendors from police assault and harassment.

Beloved Community Incubator (BCI) has supported vendors to create VU, build collective economic projects, and transform the District’s street vending laws. This year DC passed the Street Vending Decriminalization Amendment Act and the Sidewalk Vending Zones Amendment Act. These bills decriminalize street vending without a license in the district, simplify the vending license by creating vending zones, established micro enterprise home kitchen permits, established micro enterprise home kitchen permits and grant amnesty for any unpaid civil citations to vendors who receive a license under the new bills.

The campaign could not have been possible without leaders, including youth leader Genesis Lemus. She has been vending on the street since she was a baby, riding along in her stroller while her mom sold French fries and antojitos out of her cart in La Union, El Salvador. Growing up in DC, she saw vendors constantly terrified of standing up for themselves when the police would harass them, and she always knew she wanted to fight back. Organizing with fellow vendors has shown her that the people truly can have the power and can break down the systems that create injustice.

DC Jobs With Justice - I'll Be There Awards
Tuesday, November 14

Festival Center * 1640 Columbia Rd NW
Open House 5:30 - 7:00 * Awards Program 7:00

Be sure to join us for the I'll Be There Awards to hear from Genesis, BCI members, and vendors themselves talking about their nationally-inspiring win! 

In solidarity, 

Elizabeth Falcon
Executive Director
DC Jobs With Justice

PS: Click below to learn more about the impact of this year's win!