Audit and assessment, equity, diversity...
ladonnaredmond@columinate.coop
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Co-op Cafe 2022: An 8th Cooperative Principle? Co-op Cafe 2021: Proceed with Purpose Co-op Cafe 2020: Cooperative Resilience Co-op Cafe 2019: Everybody Can Shop at the Co-op Co-op Cafe 2018: Expand the Vision of 'We' [...]
Many cooperatives, social justice organizations, and businesses have begun to directly confront their own role in the social systems that perpetuate racism and inequity. Boards of directors who use Policy Governance® should feel empowered to use their policy document to clarify their expectations around the work of dismantling systems of racism and oppression.
The Abolitionists Challenge An Anti Racism Program Presented by LaDonna Sanders Redmond The Abolitionists Challenge, presented by LaDonna Sanders Redmond, is a movement for anyone who identifies as a cooperator and is interested in gaining an understanding of how they can commit to anti racism and eliminate white supremacy in cooperative spaces and in the [...]
Co-op Principle #1: Open & Voluntary Membership; in this installment filmed for the 2019 Cooperative Cafe series, LaDonna challenges us to deeply examine 'Openness' and 'Voluntary' at our own co-ops. Can we see ourselves in the Co-ops' story? Can our neighbors? Even when we struggle to compete to be seen or heard in the crowded marketplace, cooperative have a competitive advantage when it comes to being an inclusive, welcoming community gathering place.
By LaDonna Sanders–Redmond Seward Community Co-op (Minneapolis, Minn.) began its equity work in the fall of 2013. Seward’s second store, Friendship, and its first restaurant/commissary production facility, the Creamery Café, both opened in 2015. Building the Friendship Store in an historically African-American community required taking a closer look at the co-op’s commitment to equitable relationships as stated in the Seward ends statement. Taking a deep [...]
With a dozen of its members part of the program, Columinate will have a strong presence at the annual food co-op startup conference, Up & Coming, to be held in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on September 12–14. Up & Coming is a spirited event, with enthusiastic members of co-op startups from across the country mixing with veteran trainers and consultants.
The Columinate study of the Cooperative General Manager Compensation Database has uncovered another issue. The data set exposes the racial bias within the cooperative food spaces.
Columinate members will be among the many presenters and trainers at the 2025 CCMA conference, to be held in Duluth, Minnesota, on May 29-31. They will join a few hundred co-op directors, managers, and key staff from a network of food co-ops and national allies. The CCMA conference, sponsored by UWCC, is a spirited and busy three days of challenging speakers, workshops, local tours, networking, award presentations, and a bang-up closing party.
If you were to ask, most people would say that they are against racism and intolerance. Yet our society has imposed many powerful economic and social barriers to those from disenfranchised racial and economic backgrounds. Most people live in separate spheres and have limited interactions with different races and classes. For nearly a generation, food co-ops have attracted mostly white, educated and affluent people. [...]
