Cooperative Economics: The Old Idea That Could Change the Future
In the 1960s, in a small Alabama town, a group of Black women came together to form the Freedom Quilting Bee. They stitched quilts not just to keep warm, but to keep their community alive. The money from those quilts bought land, built a sewing center, and sent children to college. What they created was ownership, and it changed what was possible for their families.
That model wasn’t new, even then. From mutual aid societies to bartering circles, Black communities and other marginalized groups have practiced cooperative economics for generations. Pooling resources was often the only way to survive in a system built to exclude them. And these efforts did more than keep the lights on—they built dignity, strengthened relationships, and gave people the power to shape their own futures.
Those same values run through Lakeview’s vision for Collective Prosperity today.
In the LIVE GR8TLY ecosystem, collective prosperity is both a goal and a way of working. We’re designing the EHub to be a launchpad for worker-owned cooperatives, small-scale manufacturing, and training programs that prepare residents to step into ownership—not just employment. When a business is owned by its workers, decisions aren’t made in distant boardrooms. They’re made around kitchen tables, in community meetings, and during conversations between neighbors. Profits stay here, moving from one household to another, paying for mortgages, college tuition, and the next local business idea.
We’ve taken inspiration from places like the Mondragon Cooperative in Spain, where worker-owners have sustained thriving industries for decades, and the Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland, where residents operate successful businesses in laundry services, solar installation, and food production. These models remind us that cooperative economics works on every scale—but the way it takes root depends on the soil. Here, that means honoring Lakeview’s cultural history, economy, and specific needs. Our cooperatives will grow out of this neighborhood, for this neighborhood.
The timing matters. The economic gap in this country is wider than it’s been in decades. We’ve seen how quickly wealth can leave a neighborhood, and how long it takes to bring it back. Traditional job creation alone isn’t closing that gap, especially when so many new jobs offer low wages, few benefits, and no real path forward.
Cooperative ownership changes that. It allows people to build assets over time, to share both risk and reward, and to have a say in the decisions that affect their livelihoods. In a place like Lakeview, with its history of disinvestment and displacement, it’s a way of reclaiming control over the forces that shape our economic future.
We’re realistic about what it will take. Starting a cooperative isn’t easy. It requires time, training, and trust. There’s a learning curve in navigating legal and financial systems that weren’t built with shared ownership in mind. But the alternative—continuing to rely on outside-owned businesses that take more than they give—won’t get us where we want to go. Cooperative economics is an investment in stability, and it’s worth the patience it demands.
The EHub will be the first home for this work, but the vision extends further. We’re exploring resident-owned housing maintenance companies, food production co-ops, and even a community-rooted credit union under our Circulating Trust, Not Just Currency principle. Each venture strengthens the neighborhood’s economic resilience, keeps resources in circulation locally, and offers opportunities that grow alongside the people who live here.
Cooperative economics only works when people choose to participate—not just with money, but with commitment and belief in the shared good. It asks us to see one another as partners and to trust that our successes are connected. That’s the future we’re building here. And we invite you to be part of it—whether through contributing to the EHub, sharing your skills, or helping to launch the next cooperative in Lakeview.
Help us bring cooperative economics to life in Lakeview. Donate to the EHub, share this story, or start a conversation with us about your own cooperative idea. Together, we can create an economy built for—and by—the people who call this place home.