Starting up a Coop

Manuscript describes the current landscape of worker cooperatives in California and the ecosystem of actors and programs that support them. How the worker cooperative operates and empowers workers is discussed, as well as how worker cooperative conversions can be an effective strategy for retaining local businesses as sole proprietors prepare to retire. The report includes lots of examples, related California regulations, and a list of cooperatives.

This is a chapter of a larger report called California Cooperatives: Today’s Landscape of Worker, Housing and Childcare Cooperatives. In this chapter, Childcare Cooperatives are presented as a strategic path to addressing California’s childcare crisis. A cooperative that is organized as a charitable non-profit whose members are parents and childcare workers is offered as an ideal model to promote better jobs for childcare workers and optimal care for children and families. The positive effectiveness of childcare cooperatives is supported by research and numerous examples.