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Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy

United States

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May 22, 2023

A GreenStar For All

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Summary

How a 50 year old food co-op in Ithaca practices diversity, equity, and inclusion.

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May 18, 2023

What Sweden Can Teach the U.S. About Overcoming the Housing Crisis

Summary

Can studying cooperative housing in Sweden teach the U.S. how to overcome the moderate-income family housing crisis?

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May 8, 2023

Owning Together: Worker-Consumer Co-ops in Conversation

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“Multi-stakeholder” co-ops have become popular in recent years, but what does it really mean to bring different groups together for common ownership and governance?

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April 27, 2023

Foster & Iaione Probe Commoning in the City

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Summary

How might the commons paradigm be applied to cities in a more focused, effective way?  To find some answers, I recently interviewed two leading thinkers and advocates for urban commons, Sheila R. Foster and Christian Iaione.

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April 24, 2023

Worker Co-ops Fund Themselves, Solve Equipment Crisis

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How the VAWC Inter-cooperative Loan Fund helped save the fledgling worker co-op Flat Iron Coffeehouse.

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April 20, 2023

The Unsung Cooperative Hero Award & Ella Jo Baker

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Vernon interviews Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, Ph.D., Professor at John Jay College, and Ajowa Nzinga Ifateyo, Co Editor at Grassroots Economic Organizing. Both are also economic social justice advocates. Vernon and his guests will discuss the Unsung Cooperative Hero Award, and its first recipient Ella Jo Baker.

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April 3, 2023

Should a Worker Co-op Have Investor Owners?

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Ajowa and Josh share their thoughts on whether worker co-ops should have investor shares with voting rights.

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March 23, 2023

Where Mutual Aid Comes to Its Own Assistance

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Summary

“Mutual aid is putting the saying ‘We are all we’ve got’ into practice, and trying to meet some of the survival needs of struggling people, including ourselves, while building community and working towards [long-term] solutions that don’t depend on the state.”

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March 9, 2023

The Cooperative Advantage in Home Care Operations

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Home Care Cooperative managers/administrators wear many hats from HR to trainer, to scheduler and marketer and more! It is a lot to manage. In this session hear from experienced administrators on how they approach time management and boundary setting and prioritization to manage the never-ending to-do list and avoid burnout.

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March 1, 2023

Opportunities for Innovation: Home Care Worker Cooperatives

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We are in the midst of a labor force crisis in the supply of direct service workers. The home care industry experiences a 67% average annual turnover in workers. The number of workers needed to provide home care and respite is going to escalate over the next 2 decades, exacerbating the crisis. The shortage is already acute in rural areas, and worsening in urban and suburban areas as well. An emerging solution is developing across the country through Home Care worker cooperatives.