SENA partners with WomenVenture to reach women and minority-owned businesses

Worker-owned cooperatives may help more workers earn living wages, have a voice and build wealth within the community

by Tesha M. Christensen

The Standish-Ericsson Neighborhood Association (SENA) is working to provide small businesses and home-based businesses with training and exposure so they can thrive.
“We have a lot of women and minority-owned businesses in the area,” stated SENA Executive Director Candace Lopez.
She pointed out that the majority of the population that lives in SENA is Caucasian (85%), and the neighborhood is more affluent than some with an average income of $93,000.
Small businesses “can really flourish in this neighborhood because it’s stable and there is money to spend,” said Lopez.
Enter WomenVenture, a business center through the Small Business Administration that seeks to help women attain economic self-sufficiency through the creation and growth of profitable and sustainable businesses.
Recently, SENA partnered with WomenVentures to host its 19-week Small Business Essentials course at its office (4557 34th Ave. S.), the first time it has been offered outside the WomenVenture office at 2021 E. Hennepin Ave. in Northeast Minneapolis. The smaller than usual cohort got to know each other well, and graduated in late November.
That was exactly what WomenVenture was aiming for, according to Women’s Business Center Director Sarah Pike. One of the pillars of WomenVenture is to create a support system for entrepreneurs, acknowledging that it is critical to success.
An attendee told Lopez that she wouldn’t have done the course if it hadn’t been at this location.
“Opening our doors changed someone’s life,” Lopez remarked.
WHAT’S A WORKER-OWNED CO-OP?On Nov. 29, SENA and WomenVenture partnered again to help entrepreneurs who are thinking about operating their own childcare centers.
In 2019, WomenVenture is beginning the second round of a program that focuses specifically on helping several people come together and form worker-owned childcare cooperatives.
This type of business set-up is one way to help create a system in which childcare workers get paid better, pointed out Pike.
Childcare workers are among the lowest-paid professionals in the country. The average wage is $10.51 with a range of $6.51 to $14.58. Between 2005 and 2014, Minnesota lost over 3,000 – or nearly 30% of – licensed family childcare providers as more leave than enter this field. That amounts to a loss of 36,000 childcare spots.
“There’s a gigantic need,” said Pike.
The number one hurdle for directors is finding and keeping qualified teachers.
WomenVenture recognized that many of their solo entrepreneur students weren’t actually opening childcare centers, and realized there was a need for a clear pathway of business training and support for childcare start-ups.
Sarah Pike was hired in 2016 because of her experience with cooperative models of business, and began working to create a program geared towards childcare centers.
“Cooperatives are people-centered enterprises owned, controlled and run by and for their members to realize their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations,” explained Pike.
REINVESTING IN THE COMMUNITY AND BUILDING WEALTH
Cooperative worker-owned childcare business models have been shown in other states to be highly effective in creating and maintaining living wage jobs. Wages for teachers can increase by $10,000-$30,000, stated Pike. The differential between what the childcare center owner makes and the teacher can shrink.
“Our goal at WomenVenture is building profitable and sustainable jobs. We want people to pay themselves a living wage,” said Pike.
Plus, with a worker-owned model, which many unions lean towards, more people are involved in making decisions.
With a privately held company, an investor comes in and then pulls the profits out of the community, which is known as extractive wealth, pointed out Pike.
“With co-ops, it’s really a re-investment in the community. Money earned from the community is spent in the community,” said Pike.
“This is about building wealth.”
There is not currently a worker-owned childcare cooperative up and running in the Twin Cities, although six groups went through the first training session in 2018. There is a consumer childcare cooperative in Seward where the parents have come together to operate in a structure similar to a charter school. Other consumer co-ops include Seward Co-op, REI and Organic Valley. There are also purchasing co-ops such as ACE hardware where businesses come together to purchase goods, credit unions that take the place of banks, and housing co-ops.
In a worker-owned co-op, the workers, such as the lead teachers and the directors, are governing the business and the emphasis is on voice.
Each member gets one vote and a share of the economic benefit divided by how much they use the organization not on how many shares they hold. This stands in contrast to a system where the rich keep getting richer because they can afford to purchase more shares in a businesses, earn more, and then keep investing in more, pointed out Pike.
Thus the hiring process looks different. It usually takes about one year to vet potential worker-owners to see if it is a good fit for everyone.
This sort of structure helps match different skills together in order to operate the childcare center. For instance, there may be a teacher who wants to remain a teacher but still break into ownership. Within the worker-owned co-op model, they can do that.
“The potential of this model to change the field is so powerful,” Pike observed.
NEXT COHORT STARTS IN MARCH
Starting in March 2019, the next cohort of the Childcare Worker-Owned Cooperative program will participate in nine months of cooperative business training, expert consultation, and incubation as they launch worker-owned cooperative childcare centers.
WomenVenture’s model is one that continues to assist those who have gone through the program, acknowledging that there are a lot of steps to go through to obtain licensure and financing. Plus, it can be hard to navigate a democratic structure where everyone has a voice without a good system in place.
“It feels like this really beautiful practice of servant leadership,” stated Lopez. “Everything you do is really building up the intentions and creativity of the people you are serving. It’s a really great model.”
Applications for the next groups of 3-4 women are due by Jan. 31. Groups should have established relationships and early childcare and education experience.
Learn more by contacting Pike at 612-224-9572 or spike@womenventure.org.


Article printed in the January 2019 Longfellow/Nokomis Messenger.