News

As National Co-op month draws to a close, we wanted to highlight some of the work our Economic Equity team has been doing to build the solidarity economy in Detroit. We have had the pleasure of working alongside the Detroit Community Wealth Fund and the Grace in Action Collectives.

We’re involved in:

• Working with co-op academy to provide sessions related to employment law and cooperative governance documents. Some of the trickiest pieces of starting a co-op are the legal elements and how they align with industry standards. We’re here to help! Along with best practices in building co-ops, our attorneys will also provide legal support and research specific to your field of industry. We have worked with restaurants, textile businesses/light manufacturing, and childcare providers among others.

We believe in and promote:

• The Solidarity Economy: economic or business based efforts that aim to increase the quality of life of a region or community through local business and not-for-profit endeavors. We are combatting the existing extractive economy, which uses a business model based on extracting resources from the earth and people without replenishing or recycling them

• Worker-Owned Cooperatives

Some of the Services we provide:

• Creating business entities

• Converting conventionally conceived businesses into co-ops

• Drafting organizational documents

• Member Agreements

• Meeting assistance: e.g. Robert’s Rules of Order

• Industry-Specific Legal Advice

To learn more about the solidarity economy and how co-ops operate, check out this helpful presentation Whitley Granberry put together: