NonProfit Quarterly, February 24, 2016: (Op-Ed) Anti-Poverty Work in Rochester Includes City Backing of Worker Co-ops
“Still, in historic Rochester, New York, Mayor Lovely Warren is pushing forward on a plan to develop workers’ cooperatives to enliven the economy. The city has been and will continue to be working with the Democracy Collaborative to plan and implement the initiative, estimating that it will take a mere $1.3 million in capital to seed the project. Warren sees the initiative as anti-poverty work, but it is also meant to bring vendor relationships to some of the city’s large institutions into the community. The effort will focus on three neighborhoods: Marketview Heights, EMMA, and Beachwood. The mayor has a measureable goal in mind: lowering the poverty rate by one percentage point in one year.”