Cleveland Owns is proud to be a convening member of a new coalition of residents and advocates working to build momentum for shared ownership as a path to a more prosperous and equitable Northeast Ohio.
With the help of our friends and colleagues in this informal coalition, Cleveland Owns wrote a policy whitepaper to the Bibb administration in December proposing that they launch an Office of Community Wealth Building (OCWB) at City Hall.
We believe a Cleveland OCWB could spark and support shared ownership of businesses, land, and institutions in ways that would alleviate poverty, expand ownership and democratic participation, build intergenerational wealth, and promote racial equity.
Together, members of the Cleveland Cooperative Connection are also exploring more ways to promote cooperative entrepreneurship and conversion in the region.
Thankfully, one of the best ways to build a co-op movement is also one of the simplest: having conversations! Last Tuesday, we kicked off an online conversation series called Let’s Talk Co-op with guest Shane Hinde of Phoenix Coffee, a bona fide Cleveland institution that became employee-owned in late 2020.
In his presentation, Hinde outlined Phoenix’s years-long path to becoming a worker co-op, which he said was especially difficult because there were “not many local resources available to help convert a company to employee ownership.” For help, he had to email and cold-call co-op experts in California, New York, and Colorado––states with more robust cooperative ecosystems than Ohio.
It took years, but the efforts paid off: following a partnership with Evergreen Cooperatives, Phoenix is now owned by its employees, with 14 of its 33 workers becoming worker owners. Next month, Phoenix will elect its first slate of 5 worker owners to the company’s Board of Directors. At the end of the year, it hopes to distribute profits to its worker owners for the first time. This is a great accomplishment.
Yet Phoenix’s story underscores an important fact: it’s difficult to find resources like lawyers, accountants, and lenders in Cleveland who have practical experience working with co-ops. This poses a major challenge for new co-ops and businesses hoping to convert, costing them precious time and money. Because we see collective ownership as essential to a thriving and equitable city, we take this fact as a call to action: it’s time to create a real co-op movement here in Cleveland.
So, congratulations, Phoenix! And thank you, Shane, for kicking off Cleveland Cooperative Connection’s Let’s Talk Co-op series with us!
The next session of Let’s Talk Co-op, featuring the Woodhill Laundry Co-op, is set for Tuesday, March 22nd at 6 pm. Reach out to holly@clevelandowns.coop for info on how to join!