Sustainable Economies Law Center - Cooperatives Program

Cooperatives are enterprises and organizations that are owned and democratically governed by the people who work in or patronize them. Cooperatives thereby facilitate individual empowerment, community ownership of assets, and workplace democracy, all of which are important components of a more sustainable economy. SELC interns and volunteers are working to enable the growth of a cooperatives movement, facilitating the formation of worker, consumer, and producer cooperatives.

Current Cooperatives Projects:

• Resource Development: Build an online resource library for worker, consumer, and producer cooperatives. Draft plain-English legal resources to assist groups in forming cooperatives. Collect sample Articles, Bylaws, Disclosures, and Policies from co-ops around the country.
• Advocacy: Examine cooperative corporation statutes from states around the U.S., identify what works and what doesn't, and draft proposed changes to the California Cooperative Corporation statute, with a particular focus on making it more applicable to worker-owned cooperatives.