What We Do

We support groups of workers and neighbors as they seek to turn what they have into what they need to demand their share of the region’s prosperity. We help groups fire the boss, kick out the landlord, and elect themselves.

We start worker- and community-owned co-ops, such as the Cleveland Solar Cooperative, PowerUp Purchasing Cooperative, and co-ops that have graduated Co-op U, our incubator program for new cooperative workplaces. We work with residents who want to purchase the building they live in and convert it to resident-owned co-op housing. We organize with neighborhood residents who demand control over public resources through a People’s Budget, also known as participatory budgeting.

The common thread of our work is economic democracy--the shared stewardship of economic institutions that impact our lives. We bring 'nothing about us without us' to life through economic democracy projects in the city we love.

Cleveland Owns is the most prominent organization in Northeast Ohio building power around economic democracy and community ownership. We build alternative institutions that meet community needs and expand our collective imagination of what Cleveland looks like when it is owned by all of its residents, rather than by a few.

We believe there are two sources of power: organized people and organized money. To advance economic democracy, we use the tools of business development and community organizing, often at the same time. Together, they unlock momentum and rigor in collective action for economic democracy.

We work with grassroots groups to deepen their capacity to organize and to develop businesses -- two practices essential for building community wealth and power.

We organize across race and class, and prioritize work with Black, Latinx, Indigenous and low-income people leading the fight for justice.

how we work