TeamWorks Cooperative Development

TeamWorks’ mission is to advance worker-cooperatives as a practical way to create a socially-just and stable economy. We believe that capital is a tool that should be subordinate to democratic and human values, and that many entrepreneurs, workers, managers, and communities would prefer to use capital in this way if they knew how.

Our vision is of a democratic economy that is at once responsive to social needs, efficient, and flexible. Towards this end, we imagine worker cooperatives becoming a widely-known and used form of business organization that roots capital in local communities and helps to insure that it is responsive to democratic oversight.

Our strategy is to create a network of TeamWorks cooperatives that provide extraordinary service to their customers and serve as laboratories for organizational innovation and the development of skilled cooperative leaders and managers who will contribute to the field for decades to come. We also collaborate with other organizations and social movements to create conditions that will foster the accelerated propagation of worker cooperatives.

TeamWorks Development provides technical assistance, training, and research that advance TeamWorks’ mission and strategic vision. It is a project based at Sacred Heart Community Service, a non-profit agency based in San Jose, CA that is driven by a vision of a community united to ensure that every child and adult is free from poverty.