A Generator Of Worker-Owned Businesses

A worker at Wellspring Upholstery.

Springfield, Massachusetts, is the home of the WELLSPRING COLLABORATIVE, which serves as a generator of worker-owned companies in Springfield's inner city. The strategy involves partnering with anchor institutions, like hospitals, colleges, and other nonprofits, that, as a group, purchase more than $1.5 million worth of goods. Then new businesses, worker cooperatives, that provide those goods, are created in low-income areas. They are owned and operated by those in the neighborhoods. They, in turn, become a source of living-wage jobs for neighborhood workers. These workers are trained on the job by skilled managers, and, as employees, they share in the company's profits, so they can build their own wealth and be able to move out of poverty.

So far, the Collaborative has established Wellspring Upholstery Cooperative, which makes quality furniture for institutional and commercial customers. In addition, this enterprise is readying phase 1 of Wellspring Harvest, which will bring healthy produce to area businesses, hospitals, and residents. The first phase involves building a quarter-acre hydroponic greenhouse that will allow year-round operation. It, too, will be operated as a worker-owned cooperative. In future phases, this new enterprise will become involved in educational efforts in partnership with Springfield Public Schools and Springfield Parks Department.



In September, Wellspring Collaborative held an Invest In Your Values event. There were refreshments, and demonstrations of healthy cooking and hydroponics. Guests could then learn about investment opportunities in Wellspring Harvest. In a sense, this new enterprise would become the first urban large-scale hydroponics agricultural company in western Massachusetts. Essentially, the idea was to bring in $200,000 in seed money investment.

Drawing of the facilities for Wellspring Harvest.

Investors could buy a share in Wellspring Harvest for $1000 (with qualified investors being able to invest a minimum of $5,000). As a result of this event, the Collaborative reached its original goal of $200,000 in just four months. There is a current investment round of $50,000 underway. Those investing will support sustainable urban agriculture, growing of local fresh produce, job creation, worker ownership, building wealth and economic democracy, training students and the local community in sustainable urban agriculture, and developing a model for a community-based greenhouse that is worker-owned.

Community members engage in hand-on learning about container gardens at a workshop.

Thanks for information from this article on Wellspring Collaborative: http://wellspring.coop/about/overview; this article on the same site: http://wellspring.coop/co-op-businesses/upholstery-cooperative/overview; this article on the same site: http://wellspring.coop/co-op-businesses/greenhouse-cooperative; this article on the same site: http://wellspring.coop/employment; and the above link.

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