What We Accomplished Together At The 2024 Worker Co-op Conference

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Thanks to all of our attendees and sponsors for making the 2024 Worker Co-op Conference a resounding success—and the largest one yet! We had over 600 attendees from 37 states, DC, and Puerto Rico and international attendees from Europe and Africa.

Person with brown skin and shoulder length black hair raises arms triumphantly while person with black skin and thin braids done up in a bun looks on and applauds.

Here’s What We Accomplished Together

  • 3 days of networking, knowledge sharing, and collaboration
  • Over 40 sessions and 50 meetups
  • Over half of the attendees were Spanish speakers, 115 of which were monolingual Spanish speakers
  • Over 200 participant scholarships and housing stipends disbursed
  • Six seed grants to help partners of the federation bring people from their communities to the conference
  • Scholarships, stipends and seed grants represent over $42,000 invested into our ecosystem

Thank You To Our Sponsors

A large conference hall filled with people sitting with hands raised.

Thanks to the support of CoBank, the USFWC hosted its 2024 Annual General Meeting.

Five people with light skin standing together and smiling at the camera with their arms around each other's shoulders. One of the people's shirts reads "REI union".

This year’s conference featured the growing role of labor unions to grow worker cooperatives. Thank you SEIU-UHW West for your support of this programming!

People of different races and genders on a stage stand shoulder to shoulder and smile joyfully while displaying framed certificates.

Huge congratulations to all of our Co-op of the Year awardees, especially Cooperator of the Year Marcelino Martinez. Thank you to Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at Rutgers for sponsoring this award and helping to make these recognitions possible.

Person with black skin and short hair in pigtails talking to two people in polo shirts standing behind a table. The table is covered in a black tablecloth with a large red logo on the front, and on top of it are signs, fliers, handouts, and a signup clipboard.

The conference was buzzing with co-op energy, especially the Vendor Fair. Thanks to Cooperative Development Foundation for sponsoring the fair!

A graphic with company logos and green text that reads Thank you to our sponsors, worker co-op conference: National Cooperative Business Association, National Cooperative Bank, Ralph K. Morris Foundation, Service Employees International Union United Health Workers West, CoBank, Shared Capital Cooperative, Just Futures, Start.coop, Cooperative Development Foundation, Capital Impact Partners, Tru Stage, United Steel Workers, Rainbow Grocery, ICA Group, Cooperative Fund of the Northeast, Local Enterprise Assistance Fund, Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at Rutgers-New Brunswick University, Shared Value Media, Art.coop, Next City, The Laura Flanders Show, Saint Marys University International Centre for Cooperative Management, The working world, the Industrial Commons, Polycot Associates

Stay Connected

Here’s how you can continue cultivating connections long after the conference:

  • Connect with session presenters and fellow attendees. Sign in to the conference app to find the contact info of attendees who have opted in to sharing.
  • Share your conference photos to be featured on social media (or tag us @usfwc @wearedawi)
  • Join our public Worker Co-op Slack or Spanish member WhatsApp chat

Two people posing together in front of a green curtain and a garland hung with gold letters that read "United .... Work". The person on the left has black skin, a mustache, and short hair covered in a durag. They are making a peace sign with their right hand and grinning broadly while their left arm is wrapped around a shorter person wearing glasses with long curly gray hair and light skin.

Sustain Our Movement

If you value convenings like the Worker Co-op Conference, that bring together cooperators from across the country to learn and build power, become a monthly sustainer of the USFWC and DAWI today.

Member dues to the USFWC are the steady foundation that keeps the organization strong. Each donation the USFWC receives builds on that foundation, allowing the federation to go further—expanding programs, deepening impact, and reaching more communities. By giving today, you’ll amplify the collective power of the federation’s members, helping them build a more just and equitable future. Become a monthly sustainer of the USFWC here.

Donate to USFWC

DAWI has a commitment to creating greater access to worker ownership for workers of color, recent immigrants, and low-wage workers. As we near the end of DAWI’s 10th year of service to the field, we’re inspired by the growth of our field and the momentum we’ve built together. Donate to DAWI and contribute to a thriving worker cooperative field.

Donate to DAWI

In cooperation,

USFWC and DAWI

Posted in Events, Member News, News.

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