Webinar: Scaling the Development of Worker Owned Cooperatives

Overview

Recorded July, 2015

Hosted by BALLE

Get insight into how to scale the development of worker-owned co-ops: how to build the capacity for this model within your community, how to train those creating or converting to shared ownership, how to impact policy, and influence or harness other factors in your ecosystem. We look at two case studies of worker coop incubators, including a coop incubator in Buffalo, NY, and Project Equity’s new Cooperative Business Incubator helping low-wage workers convert to worker ownership models.

Panelists:

Andrew Delmonte, Certified Business Advisor & Social Enterprise Coordinator, Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at SUNY Buffalo State

At the SBDC, Andrew provides specialized counseling services for social entrepreneurs in social business planning, financing strategies, Benefit Corporation and Cooperative Corporation filing, and social impact measurement and reporting. He is currently working on a new initiative in Buffalo, NY, to create a development center for worker-owned cooperatives, bringing together local economy experts, labor organizers, entrepreneurs, community development leaders, traditional economic development agencies, and city government in an unprecedented collaboration.

Hilary Abell, Co-founder, Project Equity

Hilary is a leading practitioner of worker co-op development, 2014 Echoing Green Fellow, and has more than 20 years of experience working in non-profits and cooperative businesses advancing co-op development, fair trade, and community empowerment. Before Project Equity’s launch in 2014, she was Executive Director for WAGES (Women’s Action to Gain Economic Security, now called Prospera) and a consultant with leading co-op initiatives around the country. She designed and delivered a training program for the Evergreen Cooperative Initiative in 2013, and in 2014 The Democracy Collaborative published her white paper, Worker Cooperatives: Pathways to Scale.

Moderator: Steve Dubb, Special Projects Director, Democracy Collaborative

In addition to authoring numerous Democracy Collaborative reports on shared ownership, community wealth building, anchor institution models, and more, Steve, along with Ted Howard, conducted the initial strategic planning that led to the development of the Evergreen Cooperative initiative in Cleveland, Ohio. He brings to this webinar two decades of experience and research in the cooperative sector and related fields. Steve is a 2014 BALLE Fellow.