CooperationWorks tour visit to Common Ground!
Yesterday, over 50 cooperators and organizers from around the U.S. visited us at Common Ground to hear our story from beginning our union drive to taking over the cafe in 2023 in a period of just 2 months.
Thank you to everyone who joined!
#WorkerOwned #Cooperative #UnionStrong
Build the co-op skills the world needs right now!
If you’re working to start, grow, or support co-operatives, Building Blocks 2026 is designed for you.
This hybrid program combines:
Practical co-op business fundamentals
 Tools to assess feasibility and financial sustainability
 Real-world learning with other co-op developers
 In-person connection and site visits in the Twin Cities
Whether you're new to co-ops or deep in the work, this program will strengthen your ability to:
→ Build strong, resilient co-operative businesses
→ Support groups through real decisions
→ Lead with co-op values in practice
Online June 11-July 7 and the virtual component is September 20-22.
Register today via the link in bio
#Cooperatives #CoopDevelopment #SocialEconomy #LeadershipDevelopment #CommunityEconomy
Black History Month may be over, but there are too many exceptional Black Cooperative Leaders to lose steam on this one!
Today we're celebrating Esteban Kelly! Esteban has served as the Executive Director of the @usfwc for over a decade. His leadership has enabled the federation to grow exponentially and has supported the development of the worker cooperative movement across the US. Never one to shy away from leadership roles, Esteban has served on many boards, including those of the @ncbaclusa , @wearedawi , and CICOPA, just to name a few! And he practices what he preaches to boot. He's a long-time worker owner of @aortacoop .
The co-op movement is lucky to have caught this one so young (from the student housing co-ops!). We look forward to seeing what he accomplishes and the impact he'll have with the rest of his career.
Thank you, Esteban!
#BlackCooperativeLeaders
Co-op developers shape the financial DNA of new enterprises.
Finance Fundamentals starts next week.
Built for cooperative developers who want to:
• Strengthen feasibility analysis
• Stress-test projections
• Understand co-op capital structures
• Teach financial literacy with confidence
Financial fluency builds stronger co-ops.
Last week to register.
Register now!
We are so excited to celebrate @maverydavis ! Mavery is an experienced CPA, using his knowledge and experience to make generational shifts in how his community thinks of money, finances, and wealth building. He founded the Financial Literacy Boot Camp for kids in order to plant the seeds of collective wealth and abundance. And in addition to his role as Director of Lending with the New Economy Works West Virginia (a loan fund of the @seedcommons ), he serves as an Adjunct Professor of Accounting at @wvsu_official and as a guest teacher at Makeshop Design Lab (again, training up the next generation, changing hearts and minds!). And to top it all off, he serves on the board of the @usfwc as the Vice Treasurer. Mavery is a passionate champion for his community and ensuring that have access to the resources and knowledge need to build community wealth and embark on their cooperative journeys.
Thank you, Mavery, for putting your heart and soul into this powerful, generational work.
#BlackCooperativeLeaders #BlackHistoryMonth
We're celebrating Shantae J. Edwards today, who has inspired so many to know that they are enough! As the Director of Community and Training at @start_coop she cultivates their many communities (alumni, coaching, mentor!) and leads their wide array of education initiatives. But on top of that, she's an Adjunct Professor of Public Service at New York University. And we've personally experienced her dynamic, energetic, and productive facilitation, helping folks at every level of the co-op movement channel their knowledge and resources into building a stronger ecosystem.
Thank you, Shantae, for your radiance and dedication!
#BlackCooperativeLeaders #BlackHistoryMonth
Today we recognize the achievements of W.E.B Du Bois, who advocated for cooperative economics as a powerful strategy and liberatory tool for Black Americans. Du Bois was a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and served as the editor for the organization's publication, The Crisis, for well over two decades. He consistently advocated for civil rights, combatted racist ideology, and thought deeply about the advancement of Black people in a racist society. He promoted Black cooperative economic development through organizations he founded, essays he wrote, and partnerships with cooperative thinkers across the globe.
We thank Du Bois for his relentless fight for advancement, opportunity, equality, and a better world.
#BlackCooperativeLeader #BlackHistoryMonth
Dr. Assata Richards, founder of the Sankofa Research Institute, is dedicated to creating knowledge and building community using Community-Based Participatory Research. She is a social justice advocate, community organizer, and scholar who has returned to her community in Houston, TX to put her life's work into practice. In addition to founding and running the Sankofa Research Institute and teaching as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Houston, she works with We Are the Ones to "develop repeatable and scalable instances of community resilience through community wealth building (communal asset creation, acquisition and development) in Black communities and develop a solidarity economy that we define as dynamics of reciprocity and solidarity that links individual interest to collective interest." She challenges the cooperative movement to incorporate more deeply those values of the solidarity economy so that it can better serve as a tool of liberation.
Thank you, Assata!
#blackcooperativeleaders #BlackHistoryMonth
Any posts celebrating Black Cooperative Leadership would be severely lacking without honoring the incredible work that Dr. Jessica Gordon Nembhard has done for the cooperative movement. She has spent much of her career dedicated to teaching others. Not only is she a Professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, but she is a Faculty Fellow and Mentor with the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations; an affiliate scholar with the @coop.studies , University of Saskatchewan (Canada); and an adjunct professor with the @coopmgmt . In addition to teaching countless students through these programs, her deeply researched book, Collective Courage, unearthed rich histories of African American economic cooperation and continues to inspire new generations of cooperators.
Thank you, Jessica!
#blackcooperativeleaders #BlackHistoryMonth
We turn our attention northward today to celebrate Malik Yakini - Black Food Sovereignty Builder, and founder and former Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network. Inspired by Malcolm X, Malik has dedicated his life to Black liberation through local food systems, Black ownership, and food sovereignty. His passion has guided DBCFSN to become a model for how food can liberate and build community through education, sustainable agriculture, and a local, closed-loop food system. DBCFSN has also been integral to the successful development and opening of the @detroitpeoplesfoodcoop - a community-owned grocery store centering Black ownership and Black leadership.
Thank you, Malik, for passion and firm commitment to Black liberation through food sovereignty!
#BlackHistoryMonth #BlackCooperativeLeaders
Today, we celebrate co-founder of @coopneworleans and CW Board President, @tavmemhey . She has worked tirelessly to serve her immediate community in New Orleans and the larger national cooperative community through training and education, critical financial services, mutual aid, and movement-building. In New Orleans, she's helping to build a vibrant cooperative ecosystem that centers workers. She and the Cooperation NOLA team have created the Black Liberation Cooperative Academy that connects the cultural histories of cooperative economics with Black liberation and builds knowledgeable cooperators ready to operate in a new system. As Board President, her vision and drive are helping to ensure CW serves all cooperators and communities in equitable ways.
Thank you for your leadership, Tamah!
This February, we're celebrating Black Cooperative Leaders past and present. These amazing people have introduced game-changing ideas to the cooperative movement and beyond, demonstrated relentless commitment to their communities, and have grown the cooperative spirit through love, concern for community, mutuality, and passion. Stay tuned throughout the month to learn about these movers and shakers (and in many cases, bona fide Co-op Heroes!).
#BlackHistoryMonth #BlackCooperativeLeaders
