In addition to new board members, we are thrilled to welcome the following 23 organizations as members of the NEC network! This incredible cohort of new members are bringing important sectors, regions, and strategies that were underrepresented in the network.
If your organization is interested in being considered for membership in 2022, please fill out this interest form. Thank you!
Boston Ujima Project
Boston Ujima Project is a cooperative business, arts and investment ecosystem, built by and for Boston’s working class Black, Indigenous and communities of color.
⮕ On Nov 29, tune into “How Can Communities Work Together to Acquire and Control Property,” part of a month of programming geared toward developing Boston Ujima’s cooperative Real Estate Investment plan for 2022.
Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative
BCDI is growing an equitable, sustainable, and democratic local economy in the Bronx that creates shared wealth and ownership for low-income people of color.
⮕ Check out the Bronx Peoples’ Festival that BCDI helped organize with a coalition of community faith and labor organizations, as part of their work to develop a long-term economic development plan for the Bronx grounded in racial justice and economic democracy.
Candide Group
Candide Group directs capital away from an extractive global economy towards investments dedicated to social justice and sustainability.
⮕ Read about how through their Olamina Fund, Candide has lent $13 million to community financial institutions in Black, Native, and rural communities.
Co-op Cincy
Co-op Cincy nurtures a resilient, integrated network of worker-owned businesses in the Greater Cincinnati region to create an economy that works for all.
⮕ Check out highlights from their Union Co-op Symposium that took place last week, to learn why worker ownership and union organizing go hand-in-hand.
Cooperation Humboldt
Cooperation Humboldt helps to build a solidarity economy on California’s North Coast, empowering residents to meet their collective needs in harmony with nature, without exploiting anyone.
⮕ Learn about Dishgamu Humboldt, an Indigenous-led Community Land Trust that the Wiyot Tribe is developing in partnership with Cooperation Humboldt.
Cooperation New Orleans
Cooperation New Orleans’ mission is to develop worker-owned cooperatives and the structures to support them, with a focus on poor and working class Black, indigenous, and immigrant communities.
⮕ Learn about the mutual aid and just recovery work that Cooperation New Orleans has been doing in the wake of Hurricane Ida.
Detroit Community Wealth Fund
Detroit Community Wealth Fund exists to empower innovative historically-marginalized Detroiters. They blend education and programming about cooperatives with non-extractive loans to support democratic and community-based businesses in Detroit.
⮕ Hear more about about how DCWF is using their $2M non-extractive loan fund to seed an cooperative economy in Detroit.
East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative
The East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative (EB PREC) facilitates BIPOC communities to remove land and housing from the speculative market to create permanently affordable, community-controlled homes.
⮕ Read how EBPREC recently purchased the historic Esther’s Orbit Room in West Oakland to transform it into a community arts and concert space, cafe, and affordable housing for at least seven artists.
Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO) Collective
GEO collective chronicles, connects, convenes, and catalyzes activities that promote workplace democracy, while maintaining an evolving online library of the worker cooperative and solidarity economy movements.
⮕ Check out GEO’s extensive online library of solidarity economy resources, and the conversation they hosted over the summer about the intersections of abolition and cooperative development.
Humans United in Mutual Aid Networks (HUMANs)
Humans United in Mutual Aid Networks (HUMANs) is a global umbrella cooperative offering tools, experiences, and material support to members of sister mutual aid projects.
⮕ Get to know their sister projects and catch highlights from their Solidarity Summit back in January.
Justice Funders
Justice Funders is a partner and guide for philanthropy to take an active role in building a thriving and just world by redistributing wealth, democratizing power, and shifting economic control to communities.
⮕ In 2022, Justice Funders is building out new programming to support foundations to divest endowment dollars from the extractive economy and redirect that investment capital into solidarity economies in BIPOC communities.
L.A. Co-op Lab
LA Co-op Lab works to increase democratic economic power among low-income individuals and communities of color in the Los Angeles area by offering education, technical assistance, and non-extractive loans to advance worker ownership.
⮕ Check out their self-paced online co-op education program and sign up for free office hours if you’re interested in building a worker co-op in LA County.
Madison Workers Cooperative (MadWorC)
MadWorC works to build the solidarity economy in the Madison area by providing cooperative education, peer support, and technical assistance towards growing an ecosystem of worker-owned cooperatives.
⮕ Keep an eye out for MadWorC’s upcoming conference, and join their cooperative book club if you’re in the Madison area!
Partnership for Southern Equity
The Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE) advances policies and institutional actions that promote racial equity and shared prosperity for all in the growth of metropolitan Atlanta and the American South.
⮕ Read about PSE’s co-leadership of the Justice40 Accelerator, and apply to join their 2021 Just Energy Academy Leadership Development Program applications are now open.
People’s Economy Lab
The People’s Economy Lab is a Seattle-based initiative working to build a Just Transition to local, community-centered economies that are equitable, democratic, and regenerative.
⮕ Meet their inaugural cohort of Frontline Community Fellows and learn how they are advancing a Just Transition through a Native artist center, a BIPOC-led food share program, a driver’s union, community owned real estate, and more.
PeoplesHub
PeoplesHub is an online movement school connecting and supporting groups and individuals across geographies in order to build more powerful, thriving, and transformative movements.
⮕ Check out their list of upcoming trainings and sign up as an individual or with a group!
Race Forward
Race Forward catalyzes movement building for racial justice through research, media, and practice.
⮕ Check out the #ColorLines archives and their research on energy democracy as a pillar of economic transformation in BIPOC communities.
Repaired Nations
Repaired Nations is a pan-African network of support and resources that catalyzes the growth of cooperative ventures for a thriving and resilient future. They provide the network, training, funding, and supportive-infrastructure to cultivate a successful pan-African cooperative ecosystem.
⮕ Check out highlights from their 3rd Annual Black Solidarity Co-ops Conference held last month.
Seed Commons
Seed Commons is a national network of locally-rooted, non-extractive loan funds that brings the power of big finance under community control.
⮕ Learn more about how Seed Commons has invested over $15 million in a national network of worker-owned co-ops that are building their own non-extractive funding streams.
Stellar Roots
Stellar Roots is a collective of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people rooted in healing and in service of the land and land based community living in rural central Virginia.
⮕ Learn more about their collective housing and agriculture projects and how you can support their work.
US Solidarity Economy Network
The US Solidarity Economy Network connects a diverse array of individuals, organizations, businesses and projects in the shared work of building and strengthening regional, national and international movements for a solidarity economy.
⮕ Check out the recording of the Solidarity Economy 101 training they offered over the summer.
WEPOWER
WEPOWER is a St. Louis-based organization working to activate community power to redesign education, economic, health, and justice systems to be just and equitable for all.
⮕ Learn about their recently-launched $1.5 million fund to build community wealth in Black and Latinx communities in North St. Louis.
Worcester Youth Cooperatives, Inc
Worcester Youth Cooperatives is a youth collective on a mission to support the power of youth to organize cooperative solutions to social issues they care about.
⮕ Check out how WYP was invited to visit Mondragon for a week with co-ops from all around the world as part of a Youth Co-op Entrepreneurship Challenge!