BerkShares is well-known as a tool for elevating local businesses in the Berkshires and fostering a vibrant regional economy. Now, as an innovative partnership with Multicultural BRIDGE demonstrates, the local currency is also augmenting the impact of social and economic justice work in the region.
Multicultural BRIDGE was founded 15 years ago in Great Barrington by Gwendolyn VanSant, Marthe Bourdon, and Bob Norris. While working as a certified medical and mental health Spanish interpreter, Gwendolyn became deeply immersed in the Latinx community in the Berkshires and noticed a lot of needs that mirrored her own as a Black single mother. “I realized that some of the same barriers, although they were dressed up differently, existed for both me and the immigrant population that I was advocating for,” Gwendolyn shared. At the same time, she observed similar gaps surrounding people living in generational poverty in the Berkshires regardless of racial or ethnic background.
Thus, Gwendolyn helped found Multicultural BRIDGE—a non-profit that could identify resource gaps for members of the Berkshire community left on the periphery and provide access to those resources. BRIDGE is short for Berkshire Resources for the Integration of Diverse Groups and Education. At the heart of BRIDGE’s programming are its Women to Women initiative, an immigrant women’s support group, and Happiness Toolbox, which focuses on youth programming.
For Gwendolyn, the partnership between BRIDGE and BerkShares is a no-brainer: “It just aligns with BRIDGE’s values: follow the money, support local community.” Gwendolyn also hopes that BerkShares can help break down what she refers to as a “societal ‘either or’ around race relations” by advancing a model through which diverse groups in the Berkshires “can see themselves as one community where there is mutuality and value on all sides.”
Since 2020, Multicultural BRIDGE has been deepening engagement between historically disconnected groups in the Berkshires through a mutual aid food assistance program. As of today, about 126 food insecure families receive a minimum of 25 BerkShares monthly to spend at local farms and markets. By distributing BerkShares instead of federal dollars or chain store gift cards, the organization is tapping directly into local food production and exchange networks, simultaneously meeting individual needs while directing that spending to local farmers and grocers.
Gwendolyn and her team are not stopping there: they’re part of a plan to advance the program into a full-fledged Universal Basic Income (UBI) pilot like that in nearby Hudson, NY. Unlike any UBI program to date, money dispersed in BerkShares would not disproportionately seep out of the region to the likes of Amazon and Walmart. Instead, it would recirculate within the local economy and create a sought-after ‘multiplier effect,’ proving that uplifting one group doesn’t need to happen at the expense of others. As Gwendolyn says: “when communities thrive, communities thrive.”
Learn more about Multicultural BRIDGE at https://www.multiculturalbridge.org.
