Building Community Wealth Through Worker Cooperatives
THE REALITY
With rising rents, it is essential that we move deliberately to create wealth for community members so that they can continue to live in the Edgewater area and send their students to our area schools. Worker cooperatives give community members an opportunity to become owners in a cooperative business and take home more income.
WHAT IS A WORKER COOPERATIVE?
In a normal business, the owners of the business receive more of the profit than the employees. Owners or managers also make most of the decisions. In a worker cooperative, employees are owners of the business and share in the profit of the business. In worker cooperatives, the workers also work together to make decisions. The goal is that the owners in the worker cooperative build wealth as they share in the profit and decision-making.
Edgewater Collective will provide the support and services necessary for these worker cooperatives to be successful and sustainable though Incubadora Colectiva. These services will include accounting, marketing, office support and ongoing training.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
- Learn more about our cooperatives in development: Currently, we are developing four worker cooperatives. These cooperatives should be ready to welcome new members in early 2024. Click here to learn more about how to join one of these cooperatives.
- Support worker cooperatives: We are looking for business mentors to help coach worker cooperative owners as they develop their businesses.
- Invest in worker cooperative members: Our Incubadora Colectiva worker cooperative training program lasts 24 weeks and members are paid a $25 an hour stipend to attend these training sessions. This initial investment provides important financial support to members even before the cooperative is launched and members start receiving pay for their work. You can play an important role in supporting these members by donating to provide their stipends here.
Here’s a great example of what worker cooperatives can look like:
KEY PARTNERS
We can’t do this work alone. Our community partners play an important role in supporting and funding this work.
- Hilda Gehrke brings her experience in developing worker cooperatives to help coach us through this work.
- Community First Foundation plays an essential role in funding our Incubadora Colectiva so that we can invest in the development of our worker cooperatives.
- Christine Chopyak from Arlosoul is developing the curriculum for our worker cooperative training program.
- Linda Phillips provides legal support for the development of the cooperatives.
