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About
Our History
The journey to the launching of the think tank and the development of this curriculum began in 2017, when W8CED founder and facilitator Mustafa Abdul-Salaam rallied senior residents to actively participate in local development efforts. In response to a healthcare system crisis of the area’s only public hospital closing its maternity ward, leaving D.C. without a birthing center east of the Capitol the Ward 8 Senior CED Committee mobilized a partnership in December 2018 to address these issues holistically. Through community meetings support grew, leading to an 18-member steering committee by mid-2020. With funding from The Bainum Family Foundation this enabled the vision for Ward 8’s sustainable economic future to take shape and ultimately give life to this CED curriculum.
By the end of 2021, W8CED, in collaboration with Georgetown University School of Law’s Anthony Cook and his graduate students, had established 11 community-driven subcommittees to map out priorities for socioeconomic and sustainable economic development. This ongoing dialogue has been instrumental in shaping the actionable strategies that form the foundation of the 2023 W8CED Community Economic Development Report, a roadmap for Ward 8 District of Columbia, and the development of the W8CED curriculum.
Our Approach
We believe that true systems change must be led by the communities most impacted by racial and economic injustice. Our work is rooted in a bottom-up, community-driven approach that reimagines and reforms inequitable systems by shifting power, resources, and decision-making directly into the hands of communities.
Our approach to Systems Change is through engaging and connecting residents, employer and local businesses, school, health and housing providers, non profits, and locally based institutions with our community economic development framework, where we seek to introduce a bottom-up approach centered on community power and self-sufficiency. Our curriculum offers a new approach to equipping communities with the tools to build a future shaped by their own needs, voices, and values.
We are not just advocating for change; we are actively building the systems that will sustain economic and racial justice for generations. Through collective power, digital innovation, and strategic advocacy, we are shifting the conditions that have long held inequity in place. With the support of this grant, we will continue to transform our community into a national model for resident-led economic justice and self-determination.
About W8CED Think Tank
