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NeighborWorks' Owner Built Homes allow participants to earn substantial equity by working with a group of other families to help build each others' homes, and in doing so help to build one another's dreams. Their labor is called “sweat equity” and is what makes these homes affordable.  Hard work is the key to this project, along with a desire to work together to build our community and new homes.

I’m really more interested in these values—right?—of human dignity, democracy, participation, equity, because I think that is what is really going to get us transformed to a new paradigm and to new ways of being. And I think those are important because I think it’s important for humanity’s sake.

A team of facilitators from our organization, The Wildfire Project, was invited to support a base-building group whose staff was absolutely burnt out. Our first workshop brought their staff together with a volunteer leadership team (from their base) who, until then, had been minimally engaged. Staff shared their overwhelm and laid out their workload. It was clear that unless the whole group took collective ownership and responsibility for the direction of the organization, it would collapse.

A candid and insightful video profile from the Dill Pickle's Board Treasurer discussing the history of co-ops in Chicago, Philadelphia, family and pickles.

In more practical terms, platform cooperativism can be put to good use in the academic publishing field both for new initiatives and existing ones, and here are some ideas on how that could work.

Residential Loan Underwriter

The Residential Loan Underwriter supports our goal of a secure and affordable home for everyone in N.H. by evaluating mortgage applicants for appropriate credit decisions, and by backing up the servicing position on the Welcome Home Loan team. If you are a problem-solver, can multi-task, and are a customer-service leader, this is your chance to combine mortgage loan underwriting with making a difference in your community.

September 20, 2021
10-11 am Mountain Time
Free webinar

USDA has a long history supporting cooperatives, primarily as part of their programs to support farmers.

Ever since the dawn of modern labor, there have been labor struggles. Take, for example, the wage cut protests of female mill workers in 1834, the 1877 uprising of Irish-American coal miners that resulted in 19 hangings, or the many workplace accidents that led up to the 1970 development of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. 

This has led to a powerful tradition in the US to fight for the wellbeing of the working class; and even though these goals have been difficult to achieve, the struggle has not stopped. 

September 14th | 3:30-5:30pm Eastern

Housing justice is social justice, but most of us feel powerless to escape the system, much less change it. From ecovillages to apartment blocks, cooperative communities are hard pressed to establish ownership of land and buildings without resorting to conventions of property and finance that run fundamentally at odds with core values like inclusion, equity, and cooperation.

So in 2020, when Covid-19 finally hit this part of the world, the situation was already delicate. In addition to the thousands and thousands of closures of SMEs and businesses caused by the economic crisis — an alarming 10% contraction in the overall economy — there was the confinement of the population and the total closure of existing businesses due to the increase in contagion and preventive policies.

Renee Taylor was busy when I spoke with her. She was making 500 meals, following the day’s menu, “tamales, tacos, rice, pico,” accompanied by the background clamor of clattering metal serving trays.

Following her release in 2013 after 25 years in various Chicago-area prisons, the 52-year-old Taylor has been prepping and delivering meals for the food service company ChiFresh Kitchen. This isn’t any old restaurant gig: Taylor owns a piece of her workplace. ChiFresh belongs to its five worker-owners, all of whom have also done time.

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