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Progress Update: RI continued to advance community engagement initiatives, with targeted outreach efforts in Englewood to foster awareness of worker ownership and cooperative structures. Our Workforce Development Coordinator, Diante Adams, has been instrumental in expanding our recruitment by connecting with local organizations and attending community events to promote RI’s programs. Additionally, our efforts included planning cooperative-focused charrettes in partnership with Teamwork Englewood and the Greater Englewood Chamber of Commerce, aligning with local workforce needs in manufacturing and energy. Our Business and Administration Coordinator, Amari Rios, has supported these efforts by enhancing communications and engagement strategies, which will help further drive awareness and increase participant numbers in our upcoming sessions. Barriers and Opportunities: Coordinating schedules across community partners remains a challenge. However, the strong local interest from residents and collaboration with neighborhood organizations have helped address these barriers, leading to positive turnout and engagement. Diante and Amari are working on optimizing communication channels and timing to further enhance participation in our next series of community events.

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Progress Update: The Acquisition and Conversion team made significant strides in expanding RI’s pipeline. Jamie Elder provided research insights on potential acquisition targets, leveraging data from platforms like BizBuySell and developing an organized, trackable acquisition process in Trello. Additionally, our partnership with the Southland Development Authority has yielded more opportunities to connect with business owners considering worker ownership as a succession strategy. Jamie is also in touch with Manufacturing Renaissance to identify local manufacturing businesses that align with our cooperative model, and this month’s discussions have set the groundwork for identifying suitable acquisition candidates. Barriers and Opportunities: Finding acquisition-ready businesses remains a challenge, but strategic outreach through Southland’s channels and collaboration with Manufacturing Renaissance are creating a stronger base for acquisition targets. RI is exploring further engagement options to strengthen this pipeline, and Jamie will continue tracking these opportunities.

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Progress Update: This quarter, RI’s cooperative education and conversion strategy continued to develop, with each team member playing a role. Fatimeh Pahlavan worked on refining our cooperative funding strategy, drafting grant applications to secure resources needed for cooperative development. Her efforts in researching ESOP models have also helped shape our financing approach for worker cooperatives, in alignment with recent discussions with Seed Commons about funding flexibility for conversions. Our CEO, Sequane, completed advanced cooperative development training through DAWI, which has informed our framework for conversions and contributed to RI’s ability to support sustainable cooperative ownership transitions. With Diante’s addition, we are embedding cooperative principles in workforce curriculum and preparing participants to take on cooperative roles, particularly in upcoming acquisitions. Barriers and Opportunities: Securing long-term funding remains a primary barrier; however, continued partnerships and recent grant submissions provide promise. Sequane and Fatimeh are exploring additional funding opportunities, and the recent insights gained from cooperative training have strengthened RI’s conversion strategy, adding a robust layer to our acquisition support framework.

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The recent addition of Diante Adams and Amari Rios has alleviated some capacity constraints and allowed for a more targeted division of responsibilities. With Amari enhancing administrative functions and Diante leading workforce engagement, the team is better equipped to balance community outreach, acquisition strategy, and cooperative development tasks.

RI leveraged its partnerships with Southland and Manufacturing Renaissance to strengthen acquisition opportunities and recently implemented insights from DAWI’s training on cooperative frameworks. Jamie and Amari’s establishment of a Trello system has also improved transparency and tracking within the acquisition pipeline, positioning us to maintain an organized, systematic approach as we move forward.