Cooperatives work when people are deliberate about learning the cooperative principles, study the recipe for co-op businesses success, and spend time thinking about how their co-op can meet a community or business need.
The Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (PACA)—
Cooperatives work when people are deliberate about learning the cooperative principles, study the recipe for co-op businesses success, and spend time thinking about how their co-op can meet a community or business need.
The Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (PACA)—a nonprofit co-op organization dedicated to growing the cooperative economy and building a movement for economic justice—is no stranger to the critical role education plays in co-op success and sustainability. On April 1, PACA convened 2017 Co-UP: A Community Teach-in for Cultivating Economic Justice.
The day featured a conversation about PACA’s program, “20 Book Clubs—20 Cooperative Members—20 Cooperative Members,” an effort that embodies the historic example of learning circles where current or prospective cooperative members deliberately study together for an extended period to ensure their cooperative has the foundation to make a lasting impact in its members’ lives and their community.
In late 2016, 20 groups of people in the Philadelphia area who plan to form worker co-ops began meeting twice a month to learn about co-ops in study circles, a method rooted in African American and Philadelphia cooperative history. Through study, reflection and discussion, each group will identify an unmet need in their community and create a shared version of a new cooperative business to meet that need.
PACA was inspired to create this program by the writings of Dr. Je