We have exciting news to share!

After six years of advocating for livable wages, fighting to close the racial wealth divide, and training new organizers in the use of popular education for social change in North Carolina, we are planting even deeper roots in this state.

Over the last two years, we’ve been working on a unique opportunity to increase the capacity of organizers and support movement-building work. We are excited to announce that UFE is officially a part of establishing a new movement center in Durham, North Carolina! Soon we will open the center’s doors to the public for the first time.

UPDATE: the center has launched! See photos from the event here.

This is a first-of-its-kind space for organizers to gather and grow together in Durham, NC. As a movement-support organization, we knew we needed a space to better support all the incredible work going on in North Carolina, throughout the South, and across the nation. So when the Avila Retreat Center went up for sale, UFE team member Michael Young (who has recently passed away) knew this was the opportunity we were looking for. Now with Self Help Credit Union, this dream will be made a reality. We will be partnering with Self Help Credit Union and other amazing local groups and organizations to develop the new Avila Retreat Center.

The Avila Retreat Center was the site of our 2019 “Training of Trainers” in NC!

The center has 52 acres of beautiful land, dormitories and meeting spaces which will be used by UFE and other local partner organizations to find community, strengthen grassroots organizing, and build collective power. Come meet workers, organizers, community members, activists, artists, and others working for social change as we join together in celebration of this new movement center!