Bricks to Abundance: Nonextractive Capital for Circular Community Wealth in Chicago’s Southside.

Most capital still reaches social enterprises through systems of extractive debt terms and decision-making that sidelines community expertise. The Resident Association of Greater Englewood (RAGE) and Urban Growers Collective (UGC) are two Black-led organizations who received financing from the EFOD Fund to build a resident-owned commercial corridor and renewable energy and urban agriculture innovation hub in Southside Chicago. The EFOD Fund is a nonextractive capital model that pairs unrestricted grants with 0% interest loans to resource community-owned food and land projects. This session unpacks what trust-based capital deployment looks like and highlights the impacts RAGE and UGC are unlocking at the neighborhood-level.