Shifting our economic consciousness begins with recognizing that the dominant narrative is that the economy is by nature competitive, individualistic, and self-interested; winner take all. If you can’t make it, there is something wrong with you. If you are labelled as poor or homeless, a dropout or any other deficiency category, you are placed in exile from the world around you. We think that is just the way things are.

It is not. We made it up and not too long ago. We have a choice to shift our thinking and construct an economy that is co-operative, communal and generous. A compassionate or Jubilee economy that begins with the idea of debt forgiveness and then goes deeper. Jubilee is an act of imagination to welcome all in from exile.

We are conducting a series of Jubilee Forums that convene a wide range of citizens, business, social service, faith and neighborhood people, to identify and begin to shift the landscape of credit and debt in our neighborhoods. It explores the meaning of Jubilee, restoring the land and people every seven and forty nine years. We want to understand the role debt plays in our lives and how to keep it in perspective. We are working to invent forms of investment and interest-free vehicles that are realistic and would work to give people in vulnerable neighborhoods more control over their economic lives, including how to increase their capacity to capitalize their gifts and build more economic vitality into their lives. Jubilee can jump start this.

Recordings of the main speakers at the forums are below: