CCWB's Train the Trainer Cohort, June 2022 photo credit: Kevin Hernandez, CCWB
CCWB continues to look for the right opportunity to launch a worker cooperative that meets an identified business need of one or more of our anchor partners. In addition, our Cooperative Development Team continues to teach cooperative management skills to grassroots leaders and to expand awareness of worker ownership among existing and new business owners. By creating a robust worker cooperative sector in Denver, CCWB’s team is seeding more worker-owned businesses and ensuring that when anchors are ready to shift service contracts to worker cooperatives, worker owners will be equipped to bring the vision to reality.
Efforts by CCWB and others are heightening the awareness that cooperatives increase business ownership for People of Color and have significant positive ripple effects throughout our communities, including keeping dollars circulating locally, and strengthening our collective muscle for democratic participation. Worker-ownership is a viable business model that results in more profitable companies, higher wages, wealth creation among workers, better working conditions, higher customer satisfaction, lower employee turnover, greater resiliency during economic downturns, and a more meaningful work life. Growing awareness of the benefits of worker ownership has created a sharply expanded interest in supporting CCWB’s cooperative development efforts among both government and private funders.
Support from the following entities has enabled CCWB to significantly expand its worker cooperative development efforts.
Kaiser Permanente recently announced a 3-year, $360,000 grant to support CCWB’s grassroots work providing introductory popular education on worker ownership, and helping residents to bring their business ideas to fruition through the creation and launch of worker owned companies. For more details, read the press release.
The State of Colorado’s Economic Development Commission recently approved a contract for CCWB to conduct outreach to Denver metro businesses that are prime candidates for converting to employee owned.
The City of Denver has contracted CCWB to incubate and provide technical assistance to new and existing worker cooperatives.
How Can Anchors Get Involved?
CCWB’s Cooperative Development Team will soon release its outreach plan to connect with local small businesses who may be good candidates for converting to employee ownership, and we believe that anchors can play a critical role in helping us find businesses ready to become worker owned.
On a national level, Kaiser Permanente, one of the strongest anchor practitioners and advocates in the health care sector, has pursued a strategy of identifying Baby Boomer-owned businesses in its supply chain that could be good candidates for employee ownership. (See Kaiser Permanente making a push for small businesses to become employee-owned.) CCWB would like to explore possible strategies for employee ownership conversions with Denver Anchor Network participants. Here are a couple ideas:
DAN members could share lists of the Colorado-based companies with whom they do business, which would allow CCWB to examine the lists for potential worker ownership conversion candidates. (For example, ideal candidates based on conversion work in other areas, are businesses with local headquarters that have been in business for 20+ years).
DAN participants could provide a warm introduction in the form of a letter (which CCWB would help draft) endorsing the benefits of worker ownership as an exit strategy. CCWB would do all the follow-up.
These ideas provide an easy way for anchors to leverage their influence and relationships to help accelerate the creation of worker owned businesses and a more inclusive economy.
To learn more, please reach out to Michelle Sturm at michelle@communitywealthbuilding.org or Paul Bindel, CCWB’s Cooperative Development Director, at paul@communitywealthbuilding.org.
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