Support Home Care Workers Responding to COVID-19

The following is a letter from Cooperative Home Care Associates and Opportunity Threads to build support for frontline worker -owners responding to COVID-19. Dear Cooperators, We need your help. These are unprecedented times and difficult for all of our communities. Adria Powell (president and CEO of Cooperative Home Care Associates) and I are working to try and get home care workers protective surgical masks. Our health care workers are on the front… more

DAWI Statement on Coronavirus Relief Packages and Small Businesses

Protect Small Businesses and Their Workforce As an economic justice organization using the tool of shared business ownership, Democracy at Work Institute advocates for expanded coronavirus relief packages that prioritize the protection of working people and vulnerable communities. COVID-19 relief bailouts of Wall Street and airlines will not rebuild a healthy society. The 156 million working people of the United States will do that, and relief should be focused on strengthening the social safety net that will protect and support them to rebuild. Economic impacts will disproportionately affect women, poor families, people of color and immigrant communities -- the majority… more

DAWI Senior Director Named NALCAB Fellow

Our team is excited to congratulate DAWI Senior Managing Director Vanessa Bransburg on being named a 2020 NALCAB Pete Garcia Community Economic Development Fellow. Created by the National Association of Latino Community Asset Builders (NALCAB), the fellowship aims to address the growing leadership gap in non-profit community development and equip the next generation of Latino leaders with the skills needed to succeed. The Pete Garcia Community Economic Development Fellowship is a nine-month leadership training program for Latino leaders from around the country. This year, 16 professionals were selected for this prestigious program that aims to cultivate future Latino leaders. It… more

New Individual Worker Data Available

In 2019, we released preliminary findings from the first national survey of individuals in democratic workplaces across the U.S. Sponsored by DAWI and conducted in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS), Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations, and the U.S Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC), All About the Workers presents high-quality baseline data about the workplace attitudes, experiences, and demographics of individuals who work at democratic worker-owned firms. Findings from this new data are informing DAWI and USFWC efforts to build the field, advocate for worker co-ops in the political arena, and… more

Employee Ownership Often Helps to Shape and Build Hot New Markets—Then What?

New Belgium Brewing helped build the burgeoning craft beer market by shaping best practices in it: a quality product, consistent innovation, ethics and sustainability at the fore — and employee ownership at the core. Employee-owned companies have had an outsized role in building the market for craft beers, the same hot market that eventually gobbled up New Belgium. Click here to read Melissa Hoover's take on what we can learn from the… more

Thirty-Three Receive Participatory Management Certificate

By Rebecca Bauen, Director of Education and Training Democracy at Work Institute, in partnership with Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations, recently hosted a five-day Certificate in Participatory Management for managers and worker-owners from across the country. The partnership represented the evolution of DAWI's work to support the development of stronger worker-owned and worker-managed businesses throughout the U.S. Thirty-three participants from across the country joined us for the week-long program… more

Participate in the Worker Co-op Census

Every year Democracy At Work Institute and the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives conduct the Annual Economic Census to study the economic and social benefits of worker cooperatives. We want to invite your workplace to participate. This is an opportunity to contribute to major, ongoing research that will not only help shape the future for worker cooperatives in the US, but it also helps us show off just the strong, meaningful, and rapid growth of our sector. Every year we publish a State of the Sector report that helps inform our strategies for growth, advocacy and to support each other… more

We're teaming up with Rutgers University on a Participatory Management Certificate Program

Our School of Democratic Management is evolving and growing! DAWI is thrilled to partner with Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations to offer this Certificate Program in Participatory Management. This partnership helps us increase our reach and better share the knowledge to make all values-driven businesses stronger. The New Jersey/New York Center for Employee Ownership at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations (SMLR) and the Democracy at Work Institute today announced a new program to help organizations increase engagement and productivity by giving a voice to rank-and-file workers. Modeled on the successful strategies used by many employee-owned… more

Celebrate Giving Tuesday!

Celebrate Giving Tuesday by supporting worker entrepreneurship! At DAWI, we are expanding the worker cooperative model to reach workers who have been locked out of good jobs and business ownership opportunities. We work at multiple levels to foster a just, participatory economy. In 2018, we: Trained hundreds of worker-owners at our School for Democratic Management and conference events. Helped develop new shared ownership models for hundreds and eventually thousands of farmworkers in California. Helped write and pass the Main Street Employee Ownership Act, the first federal legislation ever to mention worker cooperatives by name. Changed the conversation about local economic… more