Informe CCWBE

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In July, RI continued to build on the momentum from previous months. We successfully hosted our first community design charrette in Englewood, facilitated by our collaboration with Teamwork Englewood and EG Woode. We have scheduled our second community engagement charrette to August 3, which will focus on worker voice, labor market issues, and community advocacy. Moving forward, we are focusing on recruiting trainees and cultivating partnerships within target neighborhoods, emphasizing cooperatives as tools for community wealth-building. The charette has been rescheduled for September or early October. It has been determined by Teamwork Englewood and RI that a campaign to lay the groundwork for commjnity-based worker-coop education is more intelligent and productive way to engage the community versus designing a charette around aquisitions anc converstions.

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We have diversified our pipeline strategy. We are engaging with Southland Development Authority to leverage their expertise and network. By hosting webinars and informational sessions aimed at business owners and legal/financial advisors, we hope to build a robust pipeline of potential acquisition targets. These events will educate stakeholders about worker ownership as a viable succession planning tool, helping us identify businesses that align with our cooperative model. We are increasing our efforts in direct research to identify businesses that may not be actively listed for sale but show potential for conversion to worker ownership. This involves utilizing demographic data from sources like the United States Census and insights from our partners, such as Project Equity. We are focusing on manufacturing and adjacent industries with significant worker populations and a high likelihood of retiring business owners. We are also strengthening our ties with local chambers of commerce, industry-specific organizations, and business networks. These partnerships can provide warm introductions to business owners and help us identify high-potential acquisition targets.

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One of our major achievements this month has been our collaboration with Seed Commons. We have successfully engaged in discussions and established a strong partnership framework, which we anticipate will provide us with a portion of the financial and technical support necessary for our conversion projects. In addition to Seed Commons, we have forged relationships with other Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) such as LEAF. LEAF's expertise in worker cooperative conversions and their flexibility in working with different types of cooperative models make them an ideal partner for our work.

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We continue to face deal flow issues, partly due to the geographic and demographic constraints aligned with our mission. These constraints have narrowed our pipeline, making it challenging to identify potential acquisition targets. However, we are actively addressing these challenges through our diversified pipeline strategy. This includes engaging with Southland Development Authority to leverage their expertise and network, hosting webinars and informational sessions aimed at business owners and legal/financial advisors, as well as increasing our efforts in direct research using demographic data.

Our strategic meetings with Project Equity and consultations with Manufacturing Renaissance have provided valuable insights into effective cooperative structures and conversion methodologies. Additionally, our collaboration with Seed Commons and LEAF has laid a strong foundation for securing the financial and technical support necessary for our conversion projects.

The combined assistance from Project Equity, Seed Commons and the Southland Development Authority has been critical and suggest new possibilities for RI submitting an offer to aquire a business to be converted to a worker-cooperative by the end of 2024.