News

The Democracy at Work Institute Launches the 2015 Mid-Career Fellowship Program

The Democracy at Work Institute has created a new fellowship program to support the current and next generation of mid-career worker cooperative development leaders and their organizations to engage with the question of scale. The Institute’s Fellowship Program creates the space and time for cooperative developers to step back and think about their work from this vantage point. For more information about the program, follow this link. Informational webinar and/or screening interview required prior to application. Completed applications are due on January 9th, 5:00 p.m. Pacific. more

Choosing a Business Entity: A Guide for Worker Cooperatives

When forming, worker cooperatives have an important choice to make regarding their legal entity. Each entity type has implications on important issues including taxation, employment law, and access to capital. This resource is intended to give a brief overview of the entity types and lay out the issues worker cooperatives may want to consider when choosing which is the best fit for the business at whatever stage it is currently in. Full Publication. more

Creating Better Jobs and a Fairer Economy with Worker Cooperatives

Worker cooperatives are a powerful tool for economic and community development. This resource describes their role in creating a more just economy. It provides an overview of the benefits of the cooperative form, with examples of existing cooperatives and quotes from worker-owners. The resource also describes current initiatives to develop cooperatives by nonprofits, as well as government initiatives to spur the growth of the sector. Full Publication. more

New York City Invests In Worker Cooperatives

A diverse coalition achieves unprecedented support for the worker cooperative movement from the New York City Council On Thursday, June 26th the New York City Council will vote to approve the city's annual budget, which contains a $1.2 million initiative to fund the development of worker cooperatives. This investment – the largest to date by a city government – represents an endorsement of worker cooperatives as a means of creating quality jobs and anchoring businesses in local communities. Melissa Hoover, the executive director of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives and the Democracy at Work Institute stated, “This is a… more

Worker Coops Featured in NY Times Magazine: "Who Needs a Boss?"

Here's one way to celebrate turning 10 ... Get some coverage in the NY Times Magazine! USFWC and DAWI Executive Director, Melissa Hoover, and USFWC member, The Working World, are interviewed in this well-received article, "Who Needs a Boss?". "Support for full-fledged co-ops has inched into the mainstream as comm u niti es have grown weary of waiting for private investors to create good jobs — or sick of watching them take jobs away... "One perennial criticism of worker co-ops is that they can’t afford the high-flying talent that would help them innovate... “We’re not trying to create an Amazon… more

Capturing the Imagination of Future Social Entrepreneurs

This piece comes from Sherman Kreiner at the University of Winnipeg Community Renewal Corporation. Kreiner is a longtime community economic development practitioner using worker ownership. His work at PACE in Philadelphia, including the O&O Supermarkets, Childspace and Home Care Associates, may be most familiar to our readers. His piece here explains the University of Winnipeg's development model based on four pillars of sustainability, and he makes the case that the anchor institution in an anchor strategy must provide significant leadership for the initiative to be most effective. In the process, he draws on his long experience to give an overview… more

How Young Farmers are Using Cooperatives to Build Successful Farms

On November 21st, 2013 the Democracy at Work Institute and the National Young Farmers Coalition hosted a webinar highlighting just a few of the successful cooperatives building local food systems and creating more sustainable livelihoods for young farmers. You can view the conference presentation and read more about the cooperatives here. Due to the popularity of the webinar the Institute and the NYFC will be hosting an encore presentation in December, 2013 or January, 2014. To be informed of this, and upcoming webinars sign up here. more

Spotlight: CoopEcon2013

Southerners working on an equitable, just, new economy gathered in Epes, Alabama October 4-6, at the site of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives Research and Training Center to share knowledge, skills and inspiration. (Pictured above is one group's "honeycomb" vision of a Southern cooperative economy.) CoopEcon 2013 is a conference geared toward helping current and future cooperators who are doing the work of building and strengthening new community-based enterprises in their communities. Hosted by the Southern Grassroots Economies Project (SGEP), this was the 2nd annual CoopEcon conference. The Democracy at Work Institute is part of the SGEP, and we are… more

It's Launch Time!

Join us November 1 for a webinar explaining our vision for the Institute, our current work and our plans. Space is limited. Please email info@institute.usworker.coop to RSVP. more
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