Cleveland’s scene for co-operatives is booming. A cooperative, or “co-op,” is a business legal entity that can incorporate within Ohio and various other states based on state statutes. A cooperative entity filing provides a framework for ownership and operations. Co-ops are often worker-owned and take a wide variety of forms depending on the laws and individuals involved. As the saying goes, “If you’ve seen one co-op, you’ve seen one co-op”.
For the past five years, Cleveland Owns has organized for community control of resources in pursuit of a Cleveland owned by its residents. Some examples of their work include coordinating the People’s Budget Cleveland, community solar advocacy, networking amongst current Cleveland cooperatives, and incubating future co-ops. Co-operative U, a 14-week incubator for cooperatives, is hosting their ‘Dolphin Tank’, a play on words from the TV show ‘Shark Tank’, on Wednesday, November 20th, 5:30-8 pm at Rust Belt Riders (2701 St. Clair).
During the fall semester, students of cooperative housing formed at Third Space Action Lab in the Glenville neighborhood on East 105. For an 8-week class, the study group of 20-30 students reads and discusses legal, financial, decision-making, and conflict resolution aspects of cooperatives. There are currently several housing cooperatives within Cleveland, most notably the Steiner House, which provides cooperative housing to CWRU students, and the Hessler Housing Cooperative near CWRU campus, which formed as a response to rent strikes.
The Ohio State University College of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) has a Center for Cooperatives. The CFAES Center for Cooperatives builds educational resources for Cooperatives. In September the center hosted a Cooperative Law Conference for Lawyers, Accountants, Business Builders, and Cooperators. In November, the Center will host a tour of cooperatives in Morganton, North Carolina to learn about worker cooperatives and ecosystem building in Appalachia. OSU hosts an e-learning for ‘Co-op Mastery’ on YouTube at u.osu.edu/coopmastery.
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