Video / Media & Publications / Reports

Something important is happening in Cleveland. The Democracy Collaborative—the host of C-W.org—in partnership with the Cleveland Foundation, the Ohio Employee Ownership Center, Shorebank Enterprise Cleveland, the City of Cleveland, and the city's major hospitals and universities—is helping to implement a new model of large-scale worker-owned and community-benefiting businesses. The Evergreen Cooperative Initiative is beginning to build serious momentum in one of the cities most dramatically impacted by the nation's decaying economy.

Increasingly, this model is being referred to nationally as The Cleveland Model. Initial planning is now underway to assist other cities in Ohio and nationwide to replicate and adapt this innovative approach to economic development, green job creation, and neighborhood stabilization.

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Video

Evergreen Cooperatives
A 2-minute story that aired on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.
Watch the video »

Fixing the Future
In a one-hour PBS special, Host David Brancaccio visits communities across America using innovative approaches to create jobs and build prosperity in our new economy.
Watch the trailer »

Evergreen Cooperative Initiative
Cleveland's Evergreen Cooperative Initiative launched its first community-based business on October 21, and more are on the way. Mayor Frank Jackson calls the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry "a model for how we can put our people back to work and rebuild our community.".
Watch the video that tells the Evergreen story »

Cleveland launches effort to recycle housing through "deconstruction" initiative
In Cleveland, 10,000 abandoned and stripped homes need to be torn down. City leaders, supported by the Cleveland Foundation, are building a deconstruction industry that aims to provide jobs, reuse materials, and help stabilize neighborhoods.
Watch the video »

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Media and Publications

Gar Alperovitz, Ted Howard, and Thad Williamson, "The Cleveland Model," New York: NY, The Nation, March 2010.
article-nation.pdf (670KB)

Miriam Axel-Lute, Matthew Brian Hersh, and Harold Simon, “Shelterforce Interview: Ron Sims,” Shelterforce, February 7, 2011.
www.shelterforce.org

Miriam Axel-Lute, "Green Jobs with Roots," Shelterforce, summer 2010: updated October 17, 2010.
article-axel_lute.pdf (160KB)

Bruce Beggs, "Evergreen Laundry Adds 25 New Jobs to Community in First Year," American Laundry News, December 28, 2010.
article-beggs.pdf (100KB)

Tom Breckenridge, “Evergreen Cooperative Laundry Aims to Help Struggling Neighborhoods Around Cleveland’s University Circle,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 20, 2010.
www.cleveland.com

Office of U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, “Sherrod Brown Visit to ECL,” Washington, DC: U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, Oct 12.
brown.senate.gov

Kathy O. Brozek, "Cleveland Puts Green Business Co-ops to Work on Revitalization," Oakland, CA: GreenBiz.com, May 7, 2010.
article-brozek.pdf (240KB)

Andrea Buffa, "Evergreen Cooperatives Forge an Innovative Path toward High-Quality Green Jobs," San Francisco, CA: Apollo Alliance, April 15, 2010.
article-buffa.pdf (100KB)

Dan Campbell, “Not Just a Job, but a Future,” Rural Cooperatives (USDA), November/December, 2010.
article-campbell.pdf (4MB)

Susan Arterian Chang, Best Job in the Neighborhood —and They Own It, Yes! Magazine, fall 2011.
article-chang.pdf (3.4MB)

Lee Chilcote, “Finding their Voice: A New Community Newspaper Becomes the Voice of the Unheard,” FreshWater, Jan 13, 2011.
www.freshwatercleveland.com

Sean Christian, "Business As Usual Is History: Corporations Won't Save Us, But Co-ops May," Alternet, January 5, 2010.
article-christian.pdf (90KB)

“Cleveland Foundation Appoints Ted Howard as First Steven A. Minter Fellow,” Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Foundation, May 5, 2010.
www.clevelandfoundation.org

Tamara Copeland, “Owning a Stake in Your Future,” Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers, April 7, 2011.
www.washingtongrantmakers.org

Dayna Cunningham, “Unions & Worker Coops: Understanding Two Models through the Cleveland Lense,” CoLab Radio Blog, Nov 24, 2010.
colabradio.mit.edu

Carl Davidson, “Tough Battles Ahead for Green Jobs, Climate Crisis Activists,” NYC Independent Media Center, 2010.
nyc.indymedia.org

"The Hopeful Laundry," Economist, January 7, 2010.
article-economist.pdf (220KB)

Nell Edgington, “A New Model For Ending Inner City Poverty: An Interview with Ted Howard,” Social Velocity, December 13, 2010.
www.socialvelocity.net

Nell Edgington, “Socap Day 2: Unlocking the Nonprofit Capital Space,” SocialVelocity.net, October 7, 2010.
www.socialvelocity.net

Kevin Feeney, “The Bronx, NY: A Strategy for Economic Democracy and Cooperative Development,” CoLab Radio Blog, April 28, 2010.
colabradio.mit.edu

Foundation Center, “Philanthropy and…Job Creation,” PhilanTopic, April 5, 2011.
pndblog.typepad.com

Mark Gillispie, “Cleveland Foundation Seeks to Build Modern Greenhouse in Cleveland’s Central Neighborhood,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 28, 2010.
blog.cleveland.com

Cindy Grahl, "Evergreen coop laundry," Builders Exchange Magazine,  vol. 8, no. 12, December 2009.
article-grahl.pdf (120KB)

Joe Hart, “Ted Howard: Workers’ Advocate,” Utne Reader, December, 2010.
www.utne.com

Katrina vanden Heuvel, “Making the Economy More Just,” Washington Post, July 21, 2010.
www.washingtonpost.com

Jeffrey Hollender, “The Sun Does Shine in Cleveland,” Huffington Post, April 27, 2011.
www.huffingtonpost.com

Melissa Hoover and Beadsie Woo, "To Jumpstart US Job Market, Turn Workers into Owners," Christian Science Monitor, January 11, 2010.
article-hoover-woo.pdf (100KB)

Ted Howard, “Innovation Profile: Evergreen Cooperative Initiative,” Innovation Profile, CFED.org.
www.cfed.org

Ted Howard, Steve Dubb, and Gar Alperovitz, “Help Wanted: Green Businesses Seek Worker-Owners. Walk to Work. Good Benefits,” Yes!, summer 2009, pp. 44-45.
article-howard-et-al09.pdf (170KB)

Ted Howard, Lillian Kuri, and India Pierce Lee, "The Evergreen Coooperative Initiative of Cleveland, Ohio," A Sense of Place: Place-Based Grantmaking in Practice, Washington, DC: Neighborhood Funders Group, 2010, pp. 6-12.
article-howard-kuri-pierce.pdf (730KB)

“Cleveland’s Green, Large-Scale Co-Op Model Gains Steam In A Decaying Economy,” Huffington Post, March 1, 2010.
www.huffingtonpost.com

Ajowa Nzinga Ifateyo, “The Evergreen Co-Op Model: Economic Development with a Plan to Stabilize a Community,” Berkeley, CA: Grassroots Economic Organizing, 2010.
www.geo.coop

Frances Moore Lappe, “Enough Tea Party-Style Whining - It’s Time to Take Back Our Jobs and Businesses,” Alternet, April 10, 2010.
www.alternet.org

Marc Lefkowitz, “Mayor Jackson Fights Back to Move Forward on LED Street Light Replacement,” Green City Blue Lake Blog, May 25, 2010.
www.gcbl.org

Steven Litt, “Living Cities to Award $14.75 million to Cleveland to Boost Redevelopment Effort Masterminded by Cleveland Foundation,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 28, 2010.
blog.cleveland.com

Danielle Maesrelli, “Cleveland’s Cooperative Model,” Utne Reader, February 26, 2010.
www.utne.com

Misson Market Team, “Mission Market Blog: SOCAP Update,” 3BL Media, Oct 6, 2010.
www.3blmedia.com

Plain Dealer Editorial Board, “‘Best’ and ‘Worst’ Lists are Good for Laughs, and Little Else,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 25, 2010.
www.cleveland.com

Plain Dealer Editorial Board, “Living Cities Program Makes a Bet on Cleveland,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 10, 2010.
www.cleveland.com

Andrew Revkin, “How the Gulf Spill Was Good for America,” New York Times, October 20, 2010.
dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com

Bill Scher, “Is The Answer To The Jobs Crisis In Cleveland?” Campaign for America’s Future Blog, February 12, 2010.
www.ourfuture.org

Judith P. Schwartz, "In Cleveland, Worker Co-Ops Look to a Spanish Model," Time.com, Dec. 22, 2009.
article-schwartz.pdf (40KB)

Judith D. Schwartz, “This Import Might Preserve American Jobs,” Miller-McCune, December 3, 2009.
www.miller-mccune.com

David Segal, “Some Very Creative Economic Fix-Its,” The New York Times, November 27, 2010.
www.nytimes.com

Marc Steiner, “Keynote: Anchor Man,” Urbanite Baltimore, April 1, 2010.
www.urbanitebaltimore.com

Amy Stitley, “Cooperatives, Shared Wealth, and Democracy,” CoLab Radio Blog, Oct 22, 2010.
colabradio.mit.edu

Scott Suttell, “Cleveland’s Evergreen Cooperatives Wins Maryland Prof’s Plaudits,” Crain’s Cleveland, November 29, 2010.
www.crainscleveland.com

Halle Tecco, “NorTech’s Energy Enterprise Targets Regional Growth,” Huffington Post: NextGeneration, Spring, 2010.
article-tecco.pdf (1MB)

Douglas Trattner, “Evergreen Cooperatives Focused on Creating Jobs, Money, Within Communities,” Hi Velocity, December 3, 2010.
www.hivelocitymedia.com

Douglas Trattner, “The Cleveland Model: Evergreen Coops Push to ‘Buy Local’ Model to Extremes,” FreshWater, Nov 18, 2010.
www.freshwatercleveland.com

John Tozzi, "Buying Local on a Large Scale," Business Week, February 12, 2010.
article-tozzi.pdf (210KB)

Emily Vincent, “Kent State Helps to Transform Lives Beyond Campus With Cleveland’s Evergreen Cooperative Laundry,” Kent, OH: Kent State University.
einside.kent.edu

Akito Yoshikane, “UN Gives Nod to Worker Co-Ops, as Cleveland Communities Embrace Model,” In These Times, December 31, 2009.
www.inthesetimes.com

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Democracy Collaborative Reports

Green City Growers (October 2011)
Tthe newest of the Evergreen Cooperative, broke ground on October 17th. Situated on ten acres, the greenhouse will annually produce more than 3 million heads of lettuce, 300,000 pound of fresh herbs, and will employ 35 worker-owners.
press-release-gcg.pdf (70KB)
brochure-gcg.pdf (830KB)

Field Guide to Investing in a Resilient Economy (Summer 2011)
Cleveland’s Evergreen Cooperatives are praised for their "holistic elegance" in Field Guide to Investing in a Resilient Economy. The comprehensive reports from Capital Institute assess Evergreen's accomplishments and challenges to date, as well as the general principles and goals of cooperative ownership.
report-capitalinstitute-full.pdf (6MB)
report-capitalinstitute-short.pdf (2.4MB)

The Evergreen Cooperative Model Continues To Grow (June 2010)
For a June 2010 update, listen to this Cleveland Foundation podcast.  For written updates on Evergreen, see this article in GreenBiz.com and this article from a Duke business school attendee at the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies conference.

Evergreen Cooperative Laundry (October 2009)
On October 21, 2009, the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry, the first of a growing network of worker-owned cooperatives in Cleveland's Greater University Circle neighborhoods, officially opened its doors.
flyer-cleveland-fdn.pdf (270KB)

The Cleveland Foundation (April 2009)
Bob Eckhardt, Senior Vice President for Programs and Evaluation of the Cleveland Foundation, discusses the Foundation's support of the worker-owned cooperatives.
article-eckhardt.pdf (200KB)

The Evergreen Cooperative Development Fund (March 2009)
The Evergreen Cooperative Development Fund has been launched in Cleveland. The nonprofit revolving loan fund will be used to catalyze a robust network of worker-owned cooperatives in the city's Greater University Circle Neighborhoods.
article-bernstein.pdf (80KB)

Cleveland, OH Roundtable Update (January 2009)
Our work with the Cleveland Foundation to develop employee-owned businesses in six Cleveland neighborhoods continues, as this article in Crain's Cleveland Business reports.
article-miller.pdf (90KB)

Cleveland, OH Roundtable Update (October 2008)
Our work with the Cleveland Foundation and Cleveland's anchor institutions to build an inclusive green economy continues, as outlined in this case study by Living Cities.
article-cleveland-fdn08.pdf (140KB)

Cleveland Greater University Circle Initiative (July 2007)
The Democracy Collaborative has entered into a partnership with the Cleveland Foundation to help develop the economic development component of the foundation's multi-pronged initiative focused on the city's Greater University Circle neighborhoods. The initiative seeks to focus the economic practices of local anchors (such as universities, hospitals and cultural institutions) to support community wealth building strategies.
article-cleveland-fdn.pdf (140KB)

Cleveland Roundtable on Building Community Wealth (Fall 2006)
In the fall of 2006, The Democracy Collaborative began organizing a series of Community Wealth Building Roundtables in cities across the country. One of the first of these conferences was held in Cleveland, Ohio. The Roundtable – “Building Community Wealth: New Asset-Based Approaches to Solving Social and Economic Problems in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio” – brought together local economic development practitioners and advocates, policy makers from the city and county, labor, business leaders, and anchor institutions. The day-long dialogue focused on the local situation, created linkages across sectors and organizations, and helped identify opportunities with in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio to expand the field and to build greater support for a comprehensive strategy of community wealth building innovations and policies.
article-dubb-cleve.pdf (120KB)
participant-list.pdf (52KB) | cleve-asset-map.pdf (88KB)
c-w-principles.pdf (64KB)