Author: Nia Hunter

  • BRED Co-op Industry Afternoon

    BRED Co-op Industry Afternoon

    Do you have an idea for starting a coop? Ever think about joining a coop and becoming a worker-owner? Join BRED on Feb. 11th from 1-3 pm for our Co-op Industry Afternoon. You will hear from three different businesses that are either in the start-up phase of building their coop or are currently operating as a coop. These businesses are looking to get their name out and expand their worker-owner base. This is a great event to network with potential and current worker-owners, meet others in the coop ecosystem, and share your ideas with industry folks. The developing cooperatives that will be with them sharing information are:
    1) Micro Mobile Business Accelerator
    A collaborative citywide social enterprise using cargo bicycles as vehicles for use with startup businesses, and community-led initiatives while promoting environmentalism and accessibility.
    2) Prism Hair
    A worker-owned salon and bodyworks collective. Their aim is to create a new industry standard for how salons operate and to put power back into the hands of the individual stylist/practitioner. Salons are and always have been a hub of the community and our main goal is to work together to overturn standards in place, furthering accessibility to essential services.
    3) Baltimore Broken Glass
    Baltimore Broken Glass is a Baltimore-based zero-waste business with a mission to advance community-led zero-waste solutions to our broken waste system. BBG is working to expand capacity for their worker-owned cooperative to collect glass from local residents and businesses to ensure that this incredible material is recycled and re-used and never landfilled or incinerated.
    Register today and we’ll see you on February 11th!

    Agenda

    1:00-1:30 pm Opening Mix and Mingle + Introductions
    1:30-1:45 pm Micro Mobile Business Accelerator
    1:45-2:00 pm Prism Hair
    2:00-2:15 pm Baltimore Broken Glass
    2:15-2:40 pm Q &A
    2:45-3:00 pm Closing Mix and Mingle

    **Masks are required at this event – Thank You

    Where: Dear Globe Coffee shop: 422 W Mulberry St, Baltimore, MD 21201, United States

    Time: 1 pm -3 pm

    When: Saturday February 11, 2023

  • Our ED, Christa Daring In The News

    Our ED Christa talked with Julie Scharper about raising chickens and how it isn’t as easy, or as cheap, as people think. Read this informative and eye opening article here: Baltimore Banner

  • Red Emma’s In The News

    Kaitlin Newman/The Baltimore Banner
    Kaitlin Newman/The Baltimore Banner

    Check out this article in the Baltimore Banner about Red Emma’s and their new permanent home! We are so happy for them!

  • Let’s Get Together

    With only one in-person event in the books for 2022, we realized we haven’t had a happy hour event in a long time! So we are happy to say that on November 2nd, BRED will be hosting a Co-op Happy Hour! If you’re a co-op member or plan to be in the future, join us at Red Emma’s new location from 5-7 PM. If you’ve never been to one of our happy hours, it is a great chance to casually get food, eat, drink, and talk with BRED staff and other members of Baltimore’s cooperative community. We hope to see you on the 2nd.

    Masks are required unless actively eating or drinking

  • Happy Anniversary to Cajou Creamery

    This weekend Cajou Creamery celebrated the one year anniversary of opening their scoop ship! We have loved seeing how having a physical location allowed Cajou to expand and also become a permanent Baltimore City. We hope you got to attend and if you didn’t please make plans to, because their cashew ice cream is out of this world!

    CBS Anniversary Interview

  • Opportunity: Worker Ownership State Advocacy (WOSA) Fellowship

    This looks like an amazing opportunity!

    Photo source: The United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives
    Photo source: The United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives

    The Worker Ownership State Advocacy Fellowship (WOSA) is a program of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives that equips and supports worker-owners as advocates and spokespeople for worker co-op initiatives, particularly in their home state. In our second year of the fellowship, we are pleased to be able to expand the cohort as well as increase stipends for participation.

    For more information and to apply click here ——> Apply

  • Our Jumpstart Is Back

    SAVE THE DATE for May 7th, 2022!

    The Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy (BRED) will be hosting our fourth Worker Cooperative Jumpstart on May 7, 2022! After a hiatus, we are excited to bring back this jam-packed day of workshops focused on establishing and running worker cooperatives. Whether you’ve been a worker-owner for years, are thinking about starting a co-op, or just want to learn more this event is for you!

    New and developed cooperatively-minded workers will be able to learn the basics of cooperative structure and economics, get ideas on how to start or structure your own cooperative, and be able to Q&A with experienced worker-owners! There’s something for everyone – past Worker Cooperative Jumpstarts have included panels with long-term worker-owners, in-depth information on how to make your business “breakeven,” and a nuanced look at what happens with worker-owner governance.

    Our new highlighted workshop will be Cooperative Conversions – Are you and your coworkers interested in buying the business where you currently work and converting it into a cooperative? This is for you! Organizations and individuals are welcome!

    REGISTER here

    Date: May 7, 2022 Time: 10am-4pm Location: 2640 St. Paul street, Baltimore

    Light Breakfast + Lunch will be provided

    Please let us know by April 24th if you need the following:

    *Interpretation and what kind (Spanish, sign language, etc)

    *childcare

  • Restaurant Co-ops And Economic Justice

    Article by Robert R. Raymond

    In an exploitative system like the restaurant industry, restaurant co-ops offer economic justice and peace of mind. Members of Red Emma’s and other worker-owned co-ops talk with Truthout about how the co-op business structure is changing the game for workers.

    “Being an owner of a business is a great feeling because I feel like it’s mine, that I have my name attached to something and I can impact something that’s bigger than myself — it’s empowering,” Malik Cole, a worker-owner at Red Emma’s, a cooperative restaurant, bookstore and community events space in Baltimore, Maryland, told Truthout. “It’s not just one person that’s running everything — it’s all the worker-owners coming together.”

    Click Red Emma’s talks to Truthout to read more.

  • Metta Integrative Wellness Cooperative

    Metta Integrative Wellness Cooperative

    Many of you have known Metta Integrative Wellness Center for years, perhaps since it’s opening in 2008. This is Metta Integrative Wellness Cooperative. It’s like Metta, reimagined.

    When Metta’s founding owner decided it was time for her to step away, we, the therapists of Metta, needed a radical solution to keep the business alive. We wanted something different from the status quo – a place where we could all continue to shine as individuals, to be uniquely ourselves, and to support each other collaboratively. We dreamed up a solution in which we could stick together, work together, and be equal partners in deciding the future of the business.

    We formed a cooperative. By forming a worker-owned cooperative (or “co-op”), we have joined an anti-capitalist labor movement with a long and rich history both nationally and abroad. Co-ops are business that exist to benefit their workers and the communities they serve.

    Metta Integrative Wellness Cooperative

  • Watch Co-op 101

    Here it is! We recorded the Co-op 101 webinar from 5/20, so in case you missed it you can watch it when you are able. Click this link: Recording: Co-op 101