We Are the Community's Implementation Engine

The journey to the creation of the W8CED Think Tank 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.  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 Power in Practice curriculum and the establishment of the Think Tank.

For ten years, Ward 8 residents, elders, and civic leaders organized, through more than 30 town halls and committee meetings, and a survey that reached over 3,000 residents, with 1,180 providing the core data. With research support from Georgetown University Law Center, that work produced A Dream Deserved: Realizing Our Collective Emergence a hyper-local blueprint owned entirely by the community, built as a shield against speculation and a plan for generational self-reliance.  Where traditional planning processes end with data, the Think Tank begins its work as the implementation engine. The transition requires converting passive data into active community power through three strategic mechanisms: Stewardship of Lived Data: Maintaining and deploying the specialized dataset and findings from the planning process to challenge extractive city-wide policies. Relational Cultivation: Building and sustaining the relationships that turn resident input into lasting ownership of the work. Intergenerational Leadership Pipeline: The training curriculum brings Ward 8 seniors, who hold the planning vision, together with youth ages 14 to 25, who will carry it forward, equipping both to govern, deploy, and defend local assets.