FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: July 1, 2021
Contacts:
Micha Josephy
Executive Director
Cooperative Fund of New England
(617) 910-8065
Rob Brown
Director, Business Ownership Solutions
Cooperative Development Institute
(207) 233-2987
The Cooperative Fund of New England (CFNE) and the Cooperative Development Institute (CDI) will launch the Participatory Management Initiative, an innovative new training program that will assist Massachusetts small business owners in recovering from the devastating economic impact resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The training initiative will be supported by a $77,080 Small Business Technical Assistance Resiliency Grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts through Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation (MGCC).
The Participatory Management Initiative will train business owners and employees in a program designed to help them build better systems, skills and tools that improve profitability, resilience and job quality. The program will train businesses in management strategies that educate and engage employees. Small businesses that complete the program will be eligible for customized 1-on-1 technical assistance for implementing what they’ve learned. This first-of-its-kind training program will be available to small businesses from every sector of the Massachusetts economy.
The initiative will also focus on recruiting participants from minority- and women-owned businesses across the Commonwealth, and the training and services will be available in English and Spanish.
“CFNE is incredibly grateful to MGCC and the Commonwealth’s administration for this grant award. This funding will help allow us and CDI to launch the Massachusetts Participatory Management Initiative to provide innovative technical assistance, participatory business management training, and financing assistance to help their businesses not only recover, but thrive,” said Micha Josephy of the Cooperative Fund of New England.
Addressing Disparities in Business Outcomes
Research conducted by Robert Fairlie, Professor of Economics at UC Santa Cruz, has shown that minority-owned businesses are affected by pandemic-related closures at higher rates. In the early stages of the pandemic African-American-owned businesses dropped 41 percent, Latinx business ownership fell by 32 percent, and Asian business ownership dropped by 26 percent, compared to a 17 percent decline for white business owners. The overall number of American business owners during this period plummeted by 3.3 million, or 22 percent.
A recent report from the Boston Indicators found that rates of business ownership are far below average in Black and Latinx communities, even though on a per capita basis Black and Latinx entrepreneurs start just about as many businesses as other groups.
The Participatory Management Initiative will address these disparities by partnering with established community based organizations such as the Boston Ujima Project and the Wellspring Cooperative Corporation to assist with community-based outreach to connect minority– and women-owned businesses to participate in the training initiative, advance participatory decision making, and explore avenues for non-extractive financing for their businesses.
Working with Community Partners
“To receive investment from Ujima, businesses named by members of the community must pass 36 Good Business Community Standards which includes a commitment to undergo an Open Book Accountability feasibility study. We are excited to partner with CFNE on further concretizing Ujima’s Good Business Standards and restoring trust to how we do business and relate with each other,” says Nia Evans, Executive Director of Boston Ujima Project.
The Wellspring Cooperative Corporation is a community-based cooperative development organization with a mission to create a network of worker owned companies in inner city Springfield, Massachusetts that provides on-the-job training, employment and wealth creation opportunities for low-income and unemployed residents of the city of Springfield.
“At Wellspring we work with existing and start-up cooperatives and businesses in transition that would benefit from having training on this key component of management that complements our trainings. We are glad to see this coming to Massachusetts and accessible across the state and in two languages,” said Emily Kawano, Co-Director of Wellspring Cooperative.
Trainings that make a difference
Research conducted by the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations has concluded that democratically owned and managed businesses performed better than non-employee owned companies during the COVID-19 pandemic in the areas of job retention, pay, benefits, and workplace health and safety.
“Businesses that implement open book management, democratic management and worker engagement practices and strategies have a proven track record of better profitability, productivity and worker retention rates,” said Rob Brown, Director of Business Ownership Solutions at CDI. “This training program will help small businesses learn these practices and strategies and provide direct support to implement them at their business. Creating happy, engaged workers means better performance and greater loyalty.”
Los líderes empresariales interesados en obtener más información sobre la Iniciativa de Gestión Participativa pueden obtener más información rellenando este breve formulario.
Business leaders interested in more information regarding the Participatory Management Initiative can learn more by filling out this short survey.
The Cooperative Fund of New England is a community development loan fund that has been facilitating socially responsible investing in cooperatives and worker-owned businesses in New England and Upstate New York since 1975.
Cooperative Development Institute (CDI) is the Northeast’s Center for cooperative business education, training, and technical assistance, based in Northampton, Massachusetts. A 501(c)3 founded in 1994 by cooperative leaders across industry sectors to work with people in the Northeast, CDI develops cooperative businesses and networks that grow a prosperous, equitable rural economy with healthy, robust, sustainable communities. While our focus is rural and regional, we contribute to innovative economic and community development strategies on national and global levels.
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