The Evergreen Cooperatives Story

[Music] back in 2008 Evergreen cooperatives envisioned a bold initiative that could transform and Revitalize Cleveland's struggling neighborhoods what has become known across the United States as the Evergreen model is our unique approach to making a positive impact through employee ownership our vision was to create living wage jobs in Cleveland's most disinvested neighborhoods and our journey started in Glenville however a feasibility study conducted by the Democracy collaborative commissioned by the Cleveland Foundation showed that just creating jobs alone wouldn't be enough so we decided to Pioneer a New Economic Development path one that could bring the generational impact that we envisioned we changed tracks and researched a wide range of alternative Solutions and initiatives finally embarking on the Mone model this concept success in Spain for more than 60 years calls for a fully-fledged economic democracy where workers collectively own the business and choose delegations of employees to represent them we set out for a new destination to create a dynamic Community that's home to successful employee-owned businesses revitalized neighborhoods and highquality jobs the Cleveland Foundation fueled our start by providing financial assistance and collaborating with several key leaders and institutions the city of Cleveland and major anchor institutions jumped on board offering capital and opportunities for Evergreen cooperatives startup businesses in 2009 leaders from the mayor's office Cleveland Clinic University Hospitals Ohio employee ownership Center Case Western Reserve University and the Democracy collaborative recognized their role in the community's supply chain and sought opportunities and contracts for laundry and environmental services and yearound local food production to meet those needs Evergreen Cooperative laundry Evergreen Energy Solutions and green City Growers were the first of our employee-owned businesses to open all three businesses launched quickly thanks to Evergreens anchors and the model was on its way as our employee-owned businesses grew Evergreen cooperatives determined that the companies needed additional support Evergreen Business Services or EBS was established in 2013 to offer Consolidated back office services strategic Direction and governance support tailored to employee-owned companies along the way Evergreen cooperatives recognized the need to provide better access to Capital to support its growing network of cooperatives and the capital needs of the local communities and Evergreen Cooperative Development Fund ecdf was launched by early 2018 the fund for employee ownership was established to acquire and convert existing companies to employee-owned cooperatives this exciting new initiative created a pathway of growth to expand the network of worker-owned cooperatives the fund allows Evergreen cooperatives to scale its mission to create employee-owned social impact faster with reduced risk as compared to organic startups today the Evergreen Network offers so many advantages to its employee-owned businesses from Individual wealth building by sharing in company profits to democratic governance to educational training for employee owners it's not just co-ops in Evergreens Network that benefit greatly from the Evergreen model our experts and Consultants proudly share their knowledge and experience across Northeast Ohio and the entire country at Evergreen cooperatives and the fund for employee ownership we're proud of the achievements of the co-ops in our Network it was the path we chose back in 2008 our pioneering approach governance advancements and countless lessons learned that have kept us is moving forward toward our destination we understand that our story is really just beginning and thanks to the Evergreen model we will move forward to our destination and a brighter future for local neighborhoods and for communities across the country [Music]