In response to the reauthorization of the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI), Democracy at Work Institute has begun a conversation primarily within the field of worker cooperative practitioners about how we might meet this opportunity (see our press release with Employee Ownership Expansion Network). Here we offer some thoughts gathered from dozens of conversations with partners, including those in the Workers to Owners Collaborative, on framing the opportunity, the field’s capacity for scale, and recommendations for using the SSBCI to implement both technical assistance and capital supports for employee ownership. Our focus is primarily worker cooperatives, employee-owned trusts, and member-managed LLCs, but we are actively connecting—and sharing ideas—with the ESOP community.
Read Melissa's full piece on Fifty by Fifty