Co-op Listening Session with County Leaders
IMPACT is building an ecosystem in Montgomery County to support cooperative enterprises.
| On July 23, IMPACT hosted a listening session for Cooperators with County Executive Marc Elrich, County Council Vice President Sidney Katz and District 20 Delegate Lorig Charkoudian. Members of Montgomery County cooperatives and cooperatives in formation had an opportunity to speak about the challenges faced in building cooperative businesses in an environment where few such enterprises currently exist.
The Montgomery Community Investment Cooperative described their formation as a response to the challenges faced by many immigrant micro-entrepreneurs in accessing capital. The Green Clean Cooperative explained that having to incorporate as an LLC and develop an operating agreement (with support from the American University Law School clinic) was cumbersome and did not fully meet the needs of a worker-owned cooperative. |
| Anytime Union Taxi Cooperative described the challenges of slow payments from Montgomery County as well as raising capital for wheelchair-accessible minivans. Cooperatives in formation, including a group of Ethiopian immigrant women planning a childcare cooperative in Long Branch, spoke to the need for support in simply launching their projects. Another group, evaluating worker cooperative support by municipalities nationwide, shared preliminary findings and is working on a white paper to be presented to the County Executive and County Council.
All in all, it was a great conversation on cooperatives and provided an important forum on an often ignored solution to wealth building and economic development for immigrant and low-income communities in our county. We look forward to partnering with our county and state governments to continue the work of building a strong local economy and cooperative ecosystem in Montgomery County. |
