Cooperatives are people powered organizations and SELC has been hard at work building the legal roots for cooperative economies across the country. We've trained legal professionals in New York, Oregon, and DC on cooperative law, worked for the passage of a legal entity for worker coops in California, and started the first business accelerator course for worker cooperatives on the West Coast! The legal roots of people powered economies are still being grown and its only through your support that we'll be able to deepen our impact. Will you support our continuing efforts to lay the legal foundations for People Powered Economies?

Join us in creating #PeoplePoweredEconomies by becoming a SELC Community Member with a monthly $10 contribution. For the price of lunch, you can join the growing community of change-makers working to transform our current economy into the #PeoplePoweredEconomies of the future! 

SELC knows that we can't build economies that put people before profit all by ourselves. We are committed to working with allies that build real solutions to community needs.That's why today, we're lifting up the work of Cooperation Jackson,an organization advancing the development of economic democracy in Jackson, Mississippi. They are building a solidarity economy anchored by a network of cooperatives and worker-owned, democratically self-managed enterprises. If you contribute today, 25% of your contribution will go to Cooperation Jackson to help build the roots of cooperative economies across the nation! 

Principle 6 of the international cooperative principles is cooperation amongst cooperatives. We live by those principles and see Cooperation Jackson not only as allies, but our brothers, sisters, and mentors in building local and national impact for the work we do. They are an inspiration for SELC in propelling our Cooperatives Program forward. Here are a few of the achievements that SELC's Cooperatives Program has attained over just the last year:

• Published SELC's City Policy for the Promotion of Worker Cooperatives and began working with Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco, and Emeryville city administrators to support cooperative development just like New York, Madison, WI, and Minneapolis, MN are already doing;

• Worked with a coalition of organizations, business owners, and technical assistance providers to draft and lobby for AB816, which would create a legal entity for worker cooperatives and incentivize increasing worker ownership in California; 

• Coordinated the first business accelerator program for worker cooperatives on the West Coast, the Bay Area Worker Coop Academy, at Laney College in Oakland, California (applications now being accepted for this Fall's cohort!);

• Began the accreditation process for the curriculum developed through the Worker Coop Academy in order for the course to be offered for college credit at any community college in California;

• Submitted the first draft of a legal guide for cooperative conversions in California, a guide for the "silver tsunami" of baby boomers soon to be selling their businesses (we hope) to their employees;

• Educated community based organizations looking to increase their impact and live the values they preach by becoming worker self-directed nonprofits;

• Facilitated trainings for legal professionals in Brooklyn, New York, Jackson, Mississippi, Berkeley, and Oakland on cooperative law;

Please join us in this journey of building cooperative economies. SELC understands that this is not a sprint, but a marathon. We are committed to working for the long haul building the legal roots of cooperative economies not only in California, but across the country. Be part of this transition and support SELC in cultivating the legal roots of just and resilient economies.