JOIN OUR MAY DAY THUNDERCLAP!

This May Day we want to spread the message that Cooperatives works for an ECONOMY THAT WORKS FOR ALL. 

Will you join us?

On May 1^st, hundreds of advocates across the country will take part in a Thunderclap to help amplify the message to #Ecomy4All.  Participating is easy!  Just follow the three steps below:

1)      Visit our Thunderclap page today

2)      Choose to support with your Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr account (or add all three!)

3)      Share to encourage others to join and help extend our reach!

That’s it!  Our unified message to #Economy4All will automatically send at the same time, on the same date, reaching millions throughout our social networks. 

SPOTLIGHT ON MENTORS

Jeff Deasy, Business Consultant of BOCNET

We are committed to ensure that all teams that go through the Co-op Academy have all the tools that they need to launch their worker-owned businesses. We recruit and assign a mentor to each team according to the industry they want to work in. Since 2016, Jeff Deasy has been mentoring our worker-owners through their classes, launch and continuing growth.  We appreciate his expertise and capacity to help all of our co-ops achieve their cooperative goals.

Welcome Sade Swift - Administrative Coordinator

Sade is a Afro-Dominican activist, community organizer and freedom fighter. She was born and raised in Washington Heights and now resides in the South Bronx.

A graduate of The New School, she founded the Generation Citizen New School chapter and seminar class entitled "Becoming Generation Citizen", which trains college students to work with middle school and high school students to find solutions for community issues. She has received many awards for her social justice work on and off campus. One that she is particularly proud about is the Gural Scholars Scholarship that has allowed her to travel to Colombia twice to work with Afro-Colombian communities around the Peace Process, displacement, and ancestral land preservation.  In the fall of 2016, she became the youngest campaign manager for a U.S. Vice Presidential candidate which is one of her greatest accomplishments.

Sade spends a lot of time organizing and facilitating workshops around issues such as gentrification, racial justice,  women inequalities within institutions , microaggressions in universities, gun violence, and mass incarceration, just to name a new. She was involved with Sadie Nash since the summer of 2011, participating in six programs and as a mentor for two programs. Sade was also a member of Girls Write Now and served on the Youth Board for four years.  She is proud to serve and contribute to the lives of black and brown folks and continuously creates the spaces to do so.

She is currently the deputy director of Brown Girl Recovery, where she works to create healing spaces for black and brown folks  uptown and the Bronx. Sade recently began sharing her craft 'Cards by De' as her labor of love to the world, creating handmade cards to express gratitude for all occasions. For her creating in this way is how she heals.

NYC COUNCIL CO-OP FAIR 2018

*** Click here to view photo album for NYC Council Annual Co-op Fair ***

In the 4th Annual NYC Council Co-op Fair, Woke Foods, Revolutionary Seeds Harlem, POLIDO Skateboards and Green Feen showed of their collectively manufactured and empowered goods and services to NYC's elected officials.  We thank the City Council and the Mayor's office for continuing their support to incubate worker cooperatives as strong steps towards economic empowerment.

CELEBRATE BOOGIE DOWN EARTH DAY!

Green Worker Co-ops and Green Feen Organix invites volunteers and people of all ages for a day ofenvironmentally focused activities at Synergi Urban Garden 2.0.

For more info and to RSVP click here: Boogie Down Earth Day!

REGISTER TO "OWNING OUR LABOR" CONFERENCE!

SATURDAY, JUNE 9TH AT CUNY SCHOOL OF LAW

The NYC Worker Cooperative conference this year is a co-production of the Community and Economic Development Clinic at CUNY School of Law and NYC Network of Worker Cooperatives. This year's theme is "Owning our Labor" where will have a full day of workshops, member gatherings, strategy sessions, networking events, and movement building.  The conference will be held on Sat. June 9th 2018 at the CUNY Law School, 2 Court Street W, Long Island City, NY 11101.

This is a great opportunity to meet many of the cooperatives that operate in NYC.  Workshops, panel discussions and cooperatives from NYC will sell their wares!  

Register here for the conference: Owning Our Labor

WORKER COOPERATIVE NATIONAL CONFERENCE 2018

https://usworker.coop/events/event/worker-cooperative-national-conference-2018/

Worker cooperators, unions, developers, allies, funders, investors, and visionaries — join us this September!

This moment in U.S. history is pivotal — we are taking this opportunity to catalyze workers across the country, joining with the larger cooperative and economic justice movements to create and maintain stable, empowering jobs through employee ownership.

This three day conference in Los Angeles, California will make space for connection, education, skill-building, and sharing, for worker-owners and allied leaders who work to improve the lives of workers and their families.

Stay tuned for more information. Registration will open on April 17, 2018. Email [email protected] if you have any questions.

SAVE DATE FOR SPRING 2018 GRADUATION

SUPPORT GREEN WORKER COOPERATIVES

We want to thank our funders:
New York City Council Worker Cooperative Business Development Initiative
CITGO
Gitt Family Foundation
Individual donors like you!

Become a Sustainer and be part of the movement that is working to lift communities out of poverty, build an empowered workforce, and expand the cooperative community!

Celebrating Black History Month

PushBlack.us is the first mobile-based organizing group for Black Americans. They offer daily Black History messages to educate and inspire the masses.  This is their quiz.

Click here and take the quiz!

Congratulations to
2017 Fall Co-op Academy Graduates

Photo by Jennifer Cuevas, 3rd Eye Co-op

left to right: Dariel Ortiz, Bronx Messenger; Jessica Turner, Stellaria Farm Cooperative; Dewitt Ortiz, Bronx Messenger; Heather Coppin, AdornMix; Jacquie Gaskins, AdornMix; Henny Ortiz, Bronx Messenger; Laura Ruocco, Stellaria Farm Cooperative; Ana Castillo, Arts Workroom; Yolanda Rodriguez, Arts Workroom; Omar Freilla, Green Worker Cooperatives; click for more pictures....

Welcome
2018 Spring Co-op Academy Class

The following teams have been accepted into the Spring 2018 Co-op Academy!

Artisan Sewing Cooperative NY
Batty Works
Black Light Elite
EAT RIGHT!
Entryway Design Studio
Heal the Healers Restorative Network
Ityopia
Khao'na Kitchen
LSCM Planning
M.I.R.A (Mujeres Inspirando Raices de Amor)
MoFiYá
Parkoop
SweetWater Juice Bar/Fish Fry or Market

Meet Our New Team Members

click here to learn more about them

New Website Features

IN THE NEWS features the headline stories in other publications!  We are working to compile all the news featuring each our cooperatives and showcase the expanding co-op community worldwide!

OUR CO-OPS will feature each co-op on their own page.  You can view their services, members, upcoming events and promotions and press.  We are currently at 16 co-ops but we expect to grow every cycle as more cooperatives are incorporated and open for business!

REPORT FY 2017:
Worker Cooperative Business Development Initiative

In partnership with the NYC Council and the Office of the Mayor, New York City agencies are working to build a more vibrant and inclusive city. The NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS) contributes to this vision by connecting New Yorkers to good jobs, creating stronger businesses, and building thriving neighborhoods across the five boroughs.

Worker cooperatives - businesses owned and operated by the workers - provide meaningful employment and help improve the City’s economy. They allow New Yorkers to build businesses together, therefore allowing all the workers to gain access to upward mobility and better working conditions.

The NYC Council funded WCBDI in FY2018 to help create and support more worker cooperatives. This funding supports 13 partner  organizations, including Green Worker Cooperatives, and provides centralized program management through SBS.

Our co-ops are featured in the report: Woke Foods in page 11 and New Deal Construction on page 19!

Click to read the full report!

Support Green Worker Cooperatives

We want to thank our funders:
New York City Council Worker Cooperative Business Development Initiative
CITGO
Gitt Family Foundation
Individual donors like you!

Become a Sustainer and be part of the movement that is working to lift communities out of poverty, build an empowered workforce, and expand the cooperative community!

COMMUNITY LEADERS UNITE TO EMPOWER BRONXITES ON STRATEGIES TO COUNTER GENTRIFICATION

Friday, February 3, 2017 - Green Worker Cooperatives, and the Bronx Organizer’s Collective united to host an event to hear from a community leaders on the cutting edge of long term solutions versus the problem facing Bronxites - gentrification of their neighborhood and the displacement of their families and businesses.

We see the folks across the city who have limited resources in a desperate fight against the big money of developers. Not to mention the housing policies that favor those developers. Bronxites are searching for tools to stay in their homes and businesses, to have real affordable rents to be near their families, jobs, and more.

The good news is there are community led alternatives being used throughout the five boroughs to protect residents. Even as redevelopment and displacement happens around us, the Bronx has a tradition of building shared ownership.

Shared ownership is an economic development strategy that organizations can use and are using in their services and campaigns for residents. We know that tools such as community land trusts, and housing & worker cooperatives can provide stability to those most vulnerable. Green Worker Cooperatives believe these are solutions to the problems of a shifting city and we can give our assistance to community groups and individuals to begin the process of growing collective wealth. Here, in the Bronx.

THE PANELISTS 

Kendall Jackman, Moderator - is the co-founder of Bronx Organizers Collective. Member of Picture the Homeless, former Housing Campaign Leader at PTH ( Count Coordinator of Vacant Property Count), Founding Member of New York City Community Land Initiative (Steering, Education and Outreach Committees), Core Member of South Bronx Community Food Coalition, Member New Settlement Community Food Action Leadership Group.

Omar Freilla is the founder and director of Green Worker Cooperatives. Omar has over 13 years of experience in cooperative & green business development with an equal number of years as an organizer challenging environmental racism, classism, and sexism. 

Mychal Johnson has a long-standing track record in community-based advocacy for environmental, economic and social justice in the South Bronx. He is a co-founder of South Bronx Unite and a member of the Board of Directors of the Mott Haven-Port Morris Community Land Stewards. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the NYC Community Land Initiative, and several environmental preservation and stewardship boards and groups. He advocates for greater access to green space, truly affordable housing and quality of life enhancing efforts without gentrification in the South Bronx. 

Marcus Moore is a leader at Picture the Homeless and has actively participated in the New York City Community Land Initiative through Picture the Homeless. Specifically, he has been heavily involved in creating our popular education materials, including Trustville, the board game we created with New Economy Project and Hester Street that educates folks on how people who are currently left out of the market could find housing through land trusts and mutual housing associations. He is also an urban homesteader who deeply understands the need for housing stability.

Lauren Wilfong is the Program & Operations Coordinator at New Economy Project, an economic justice advocacy organization based in NYC. Among other things, she represents New Economy Project in the NYC Worker Cooperative Support Network and co-chairs the Education & Outreach working group of the NYC Community Land Initiative. 

Celeste Hornbach is the Director of New Co-op Development at UHAB.She joined UHAB in 2015 as a project associate in the Co-op Preservation department.  In that role she assisted UHAB-developed affordable cooperatives in budget preparation and all other aspects of technical assistance that keep them healthy and well-functioning.  She now helps ensure the successful co-op conversion of buildings in UHAB's development pipeline and she continually seeks innovative ways to create resident-controlled affordable housing in New York City.

FALL 2016 CO-OP ACADEMY!

On Feb 2nd, we graduated 4 new worker cooperatives from the Fall 2016 session of our 5-month long cooperative business boot camp, the Co-op Academy.

THE GRADUATES:

• Woke Foods is a catering co-op specializing in Dominican/Caribbean-inspired vegetarian deliciousness;

• CUNY Co-op Cafe is working on launching coffee carts and cafes throughout all of the CUNY campuses, but starting with one at Hunter College; 

• Khet Hemet Birth & Wellness Center’s doulas and midwives are working on opening a birthing center for the whole family and are currently offering sacral steaming (aka vaginal steaming or hip baths); and

• Vida’s Criollo is preparing arrangements to open a neighborhood restaurant that specializes in locally-grown ingredients.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: JESSICA GORDON NEMBHARD

Jessica Gordon Nembhard is a political economist and Professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development in the Africana Studies Department at John Jay College, City University of NY; and author of Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice. 

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR COOPERATIVE CATERERS

B. Blossom is not just a catering business, it is a Bronx experience. Its owners are Bronx's residents who have a passion for fine food that is delicious, appetizing and nutritious. As they experience the blossoming of the Bronx, they also desire to offer a blossoming culinary experience to its many customers.

Contact: Manuela Perez

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.bblossom.org

and Woke Foods, our Dominican/Caribbean Vegan caterers, gave us a preview of what's to come.    

Click below for our gallery of pictures of Fall 2016 Graduation!

COMMUNITY UPDATES - WINTER 2017

What a way to start 2017!  

We graduated our 4 new worker cooperatives, from the Fall 2016 session of our 5-month long cooperative business boot camp, the Co-op Academy.

And then…

...a few days after graduation, we turned right around and launched the Spring 2017 session of the Co-op Academy, our biggest class yet… about 40 people working on 11 worker co-ops! That’s right…11 co-ops. And they’re in a wide range of industries, from construction; event planning and composting to real estate; apparel; and more. 

In partnership with the Bronx Organizers Collective we co-hosted Gentrification is Not Inevitable: Land Trusts and Cooperatives Panel Event where we discussed supporting worker-owned businesses, HDFC's Cooperative Home Ownership, Land Trusts, and other collective partnerships that help keep our businesses and homes affordable in our communities. 

And still more....

We hosted two monthly info sessions for teams of entrepreneurs who want to start a business together.

For our existing cooperatives, in collaboration with Wagner, CPA's, we hosted NYC's first ever tax filing workshop for worker cooperatives!

Click on any of the panels below for more information, albums, and contact information! 

SUPPORT WORKER-OWNERS! BECOME A SUSTAINER

Our co-ops are overwhelmingly people of color, women, and immigrant. That is who we are too. And that’s who we want you to think of in the future when you reflect on who’s at the cutting edge of a new economy.   

SAVE THE DATE

Click below for more information

SUMMER/FALL 2016

STANDING WITH #BLACKLIVESMATTER

If you haven’t read the brilliant Movement For Black Lives policy platform, stop what you’re doing and read it now.  Produced over the course of a year by over 50 organizations, the platform is the most comprehensive and visionary of any policy platform in use today. 

For this reason, Green Worker Cooperatives formally endorses the platform and we encourage all others to do so as well. It is a declaration that the videos of disproportionate beatings and killings of Black people by police that we’ve gotten so used to seeing; posting; tweeting; and marching over, are just the tip of a massive iceberg of structural racism that envelops all the institutions of our daily lives. 

It acknowledges that racist violence lives and breathes in the policies that shape our economy; our systems of health care; education; housing; land use; criminal justice; waste disposal; energy production; transportation; parks; you name it.  And it acknowledges that those policies combine with the many other ways people are marginalized, whether by class; gender; age; ability; or sexual orientation, to name a few.   

While each section of the platform shines a spotlight on some of the most cutting-edge initiatives happening in the country right now, we’re particularly excited about the section on economic justice and its calls for investment in cooperative development.

At Green Worker Cooperatives, we have always viewed our work developing people of color-led worker co-ops as a critical piece of the movement for social & economic justice. We help build that other world that we all know is possible...from the bottom up.  

That work is part of a long tradition of autonomy & self-determination that we’ve always drawn our strength from: from post-slavery Black mutual aid societies to the Black Panther Party & Young Lords Party’s breakfast & health programs, to the Federation of Southern Cooperatives and their preservation of Black farmland, to the participatory governance structure and cooperatives of the Zapatistas. 

We’ve been at this work for over 13 years, blazing a trail for a people of color cooperative economy inside a capitalist wilderness, learning and growing ourselves as we help others to launch and grow worker co-ops. Along the way, we inspire others to join us on the trail. We love that we get to create what’s possible. And we love our growing community of fellow travelers.  

MAKING BRONX HISTORY: President Hugo Chavez and Omar Freilla Mural Unveiling

On September 22, 2016, Foreign Minister of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez presided over the unveiling of a mural that commemorated the ten year anniversary of the day that the late President  of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez came to the South Bronx. 

President Chavez was invited by Congressman Jose Serrano to negotiate a relationship with CITGO,  the American subsidiary of Venezuela’s Oil Company.  The mural is a snapshot of that day in September 2005 when he visited The Point to meet with community leaders, and play “la guira” with Omar. 

CONGRATULATIONS! CO-OP ACADEMY SPRING 2016		WELCOME! CO-OP ACADEMY FALL 2016
Over and Above - Child Care Revolutionary Seeds - Artisenal Arts The House of Spoof Cooperative - Photography, Logo & Design		Better Health Supermarket, Chulita’s Restaurant CUNY Co-op Cafe, Khet Hemet Birth & Wellness Center Transformative Dog Trainers, Woke Foods - Vegan Caterers