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Rust Belt Riders is nearly a worker owned cooperative of people inspired by what we do with food when we're done with it. They do the dirty, often sloppy work of collecting food from people, businesses, schools and organizations, and mixing them with woody materials and high quality compost to make organic potting mix to help recapture carbon on our degraded landscapes. All this while growing healthy food and community. Another world is possible (and it will be delicious).

The Appleseed permaculture model talks about financial, intellectual, living, material, cultural, experiential, social, and spiritual [capital]. I make sure that I keep those in my head because it's a part of my presentation pitch. Money is one-eighth  of that, it’s only one part of what all our communities have to offer. I often talk about timebanking as seven-eights of that.

Brett Theodos, senior fellow at the Urban Institute, said federal, state and local policy often leave co-ops at a disadvantage. This needs to change so more co-ops can be grown in underserved markets; there is a need to convert more existing businesses to co-ops, to prevent demutualisations and to prevent co-op failures; and to grow the size and market share of co-ops.

This requires enabling legislation, regulatory reform, financial support, technical assistance, and preferential procurement policies, he said.

Co-ops in Canada employ hundreds of thousands and contribute billions to the GDP. These co-ops are democratic, they care for their communities, and they’re strong and successful because they engage with their member-owners to know how to keep the business running well.

We have to keep getting out of our silos, within the co-op movement and outside this movement. We have to really practice Principle 6 of “cooperation among cooperatives.” But we also need to think about multiple stakeholders. We need more multi-stakeholder solidarity co-ops and more self-management and consensus building. We need fair-labor and fair-trade policies, and fair production/processing policies and ownership—and then need to practice those policies. We need to really practice Principle 7: concern for community.

The North American Students of Cooperation (Nasco), which represents student housing co-ops in the USA and Canada, and Student Co-op Homes, a student co-op federation in the UK, started working together in 2019, when they adopted a Transatlantic Solidarity Agreement. They believe membership of CHI is the first step in their efforts to develop a mutually supportive partnership.

We are excited to announce that we are accepting applications for our 2021 cohort, which will run March 2021 - June 2021.

The Start.coop accelerator seeks applications from cooperative start-ups from across North America with potential for transformative impact at scale. Our 16-week virtual accelerator program involves five core elements:

Diana McKnight, a 30-year advocate for community and economic development and a resident of Washington state, said she’d been researching ways to help people of color empower themselves and become more knowledgeable and strategic about their finances. Finally, about three months ago when COVID-19 was at its initial peak in the United States, McKnight launched Extended Family 100, a virtually-run ROSCA that consists of family and friends from across the United States.

Artists in every field want to collaborate with each other and with their own community-supporting audiences. But trusted collaboration without face to face interaction is difficult. Many of us let the major corporate social platforms manage the majority of our identity information, even if we prefer to work in trusted ‘peer-to-peer’ circles.

Celebrated nationally since 1964, Co-op Month is an opportunity for food co-ops and their members to spread the word about the contributions they make to their communities every day, and challenge ourselves to do more as we work to build a more healthy, just and sustainable food system and economy.

Like any cooperative, a platform co-op is an enterprise jointly owned and controlled by its workers. Platform means the workers use an app or website to connect with one another and organize services for users.