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Tacoma is looking to model a community wealth and development program after the greenhouse built in Cleveland through Green City Growers. 

“Plain and simple, it works,” Ted Howard, a Clevelander, told Tacoma’s anchor institution representatives last September. Howard now serves as president and co-founder of The Democracy Collaborative, which provides research, support, and evangelism around this idea of institutions pooling their power for their communities.

The Delta Creative Business Challenge granted a local business owner/artist a cash prize with which he can further his business. The contest aimed to begin building community wealth, which builds ownership at the local level to allow individuals to control their own future. 

The Green New Deal bill stands against a daunting task: to produce net zero emissions by 2050. Johanna Bozuwa explains how privately-owned utilities are incentivized only for profit and not to care for the environment. 

“So being pushed towards taking climate change seriously and shifting towards renewables… those are all things that are contrary to the investor-owned utility model that makes money specifically off of what they call capital infrastructure and guaranteed rate of return.”

The Fund for Employee Ownership, funded by the Democracy Collaborative, is jumpstarting employee ownership for employees of the Evergreen Cooperative. 

Typically it can take many months, even a year or more, to train employees before they’re prepared to purchase a business from its existing owner. The Fund offers to buy-out owners when they’re ready to sell or retire, and then get to the hard work of converting to employee ownership.

“We’re excited about the opportunity to accelerate that process of developing more employee-owners,” Rose says.

 

The US has a surprisingly large amount of public ownership. But in order for it to truly serve the social good, it must be expanded — and democratized.

In the face of Microsoft's announcement of a large allocation for loans to help middle- and low-income families meet the costs of housing. People working in affordable housing across the country, including John Duda, have called attention to the fact that this is not a long-term solution. 

Marjorie Kelly is interviewed about the Fifty by Fifty Network, with the goal of reaching 50 million employee-owners by 2050. The aim of this Network is to expand democracy into the workplace in a way that will transform the economy. 

A discussion on ideas for bringing democracy to the workplace commends the Democracy Collaborative's work in promoting comprehensive economic change.