Join us on October 26th for the 2024 Beyond Business as Usual Conference
CO-OPS & THE NEXT ECONOMY
The soil represents the collective consciousness around the principles and practices of cooperation.
OUR STORY
In 2022, the Cooperative Fund of the Northeast (CFNE), a community development loan fund that facilitates socially responsible investing in cooperatives, community-oriented nonprofits, and worker-owned businesses in New England and New York, announced the launch of the Co-Op Navigator Fellowship, a three-year fellowship for emerging cooperators and co-op developers, dedicating $800,000 to kickstart this initiative.
pictured left to right: Maggie Maiorana, Carolyn Edsell-Vetter, varun khattar sharma, Steph Wiley, Ana Martina, Johan Matthews, and Kaciem Swain at the opening retreat of the Co-Op Navigator Fellowship on October 22, 2022
Co-Op Navigator Fellowship
The Co-Op Navigator Fellowship emerged out of consultations with Black, Latinx, and indigenous-rooted organizations striving to develop community-owned and governed enterprises. Recognizing our nation’s history of racially motivated economic exclusion, the Fellowship seeks to “change the face of the co-op movement.”
CFNE has partnered with community-based economic development organizations to hire, train, and mentor a local co-op interested organizer and/or entrepreneur to serve their communities as a Co-Op Navigator.
reSET, a non-profit based in Hartford, Connecticut, whose mission is to advance the social enterprise sector was selected as a host organizations, along with Four Directions Development Corporation in Orono, Maine, Fuerza Labor in Central Falls, Rhode Island, the Cap Region Co-Op Connection, Black Farmer Fund and the Northeast Farmer of Color Land Trust.
Founding advisory board
Inspired by our neighbors at the Massachusetts Solidarity Economy Network, the Coalition for Worker Ownership and Power, the Cap Region Co-Op Connection, and the New York City Network for Worker Co-Ops, and the national organizations the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives, the Democracy at Work Institute, and the New Economy Coalition, varun assembled the founding advisory board to incubate the idea for a statewide network focused on co-op development and solidarity economy organizing.
This group of seven Hartford and New Haven-based organizers, artists, and entrepreneurs – Constanza Segovia, Gabbie Barnes, Jasmin Agosto, Javier Villatoro, Jeff Devereux, Lindaluz Carrillo and Slate Ballard – met about once per month between January and December 2023, online and in-person, with support from reSET’s executive director Sarah Bodley and the Cooperative Fund of the the Northeast’s Learning Team members Johan Matthews and Carolyn Edsell Vetter.
In the first six months, we focused on relationship building, studying the cooperative and solidarity economy movement, and developing a shared vision, values, norms, and practices. We selected the network’s name, drafted a proposal for an ecosystem assessment project, submitted our first grant application, worked with Lindaluz Carrillo to design our logo and brand, purchased the web domain www.connecticut.coop, and launched pages on Instagram @cooperate.ct, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
On October 21, 2023 we celebrated Cooperate Connecticut’s official launch with an in-person event at the Cornelia Center at Trinity College in Hartford featuring a marketplace, live music, ritual, artmaking, and a panel discussion, followed by an after-party at Semilla Cafe.
In 2024, we are in the midst of studying and adopting sociocratic methods and establishing our governance and membership model.
Cooperate Connecticut is not currently incorporated as a legal entity. We are exploring different routes for legal formation including seeking fiscal sponsorship from a registered 501 (c)(3) or forming a secondary cooperative, i.e. a cooperative formed by two or more primary co-operatives to provide services to its members. The network is currently receiving financial and legal oversight and management from reSET, or Social Enterprise Trust Inc, a registered 501 (c)(3)
Staff
VARUN KHATTAR SHARMA (they/them) is a 2022-2025 Co-Op Navigator Fellow with the Cooperative Fund of the Northeast and reSET, a founder and worker-owner of the People’s Saturday School, a cooperative of anti-oppression facilitators based in Hartford, Connecticut, and a trainer and coach with Co-Creating Effective & Inclusive Organizations and Beyond Diversity 101.
varun is a Punjabi Queer non-binary facilitator, teacher, writer, designer, curator, and strategist. They previously taught high school social sciences and ethnic studies. In 2020, they co-founded the Connecticut UndocuFund, a project that redistributed over a quarter of a million dollars to working class immigrant households impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a youth member with CT Students for a Dream, varun was involved in a six-year long legislative campaign that expanded financial aid access for undocumented students at CT public universities and community colleges. Later as program manager, they worked with young people, caregivers, educators, administrators, and government officials on the policy’s implementation. They began their career in public health, youth development, mutual aid, deportation defense, and educational equity work in Central and Eastern Connecticut.