VAWC provides on-going technical assistance to its members. Part of the founding vision of VAWC was for worker co-ops to have the resources needed for long-term success, and to get it in a way that wasn’t out of touch with this unique model. Through its membership, board, and ability to gather cautionary tales and successes, members have access to leaders, policies, practices and more to support their co-op for decades.
Larisa Demos, our board chair and cofounder of Flat Iron Coffeehouse, sharing how their co-op builds community strength and political engagement.
What is Technical Assistance?
Technical assistance is a type of business jargon that, to us, essentially means business support that is specifically made for worker co-ops. Assistance that has a breadth and depth that can create innovative and adaptable solutions where workers are equipped with the information and support they need to govern, direct, and effectively work within a business. As with any worker co-op, we feel there must be a balance between creating dignified jobs striving to create satisfying careers while also competing in the market, and efficiently so.
Technical Assistance by and for Worker Co-operators
Good technical assistance – or “TA” – empowers any members of a co-op to bring their creativity and innovation as well as dedication to their work. When a worker co-op does well, its members also do well and this concept of equitable distribution of wealth is woven throughout the model from the frequent use of pay ratios (the highest paid in the co-op doesn’t make more than twice that of the lowest paid person, for example) to the distribution of patronage based on hours worked and not position. VAWC’s support does not use “conventional” wisdom like paying workers less or sustaining low quality of work life to improve profits. Instead, we see the power and effects of an informed, engaged workforce.
Long-term Success
Our vision is based on worker co-ops that are informed and equipped to operate their own business. Our founders and our on-going theory of change does not prize quick “parachute in” support methods where resources are kept external to co-ops and not used by the members themselves. Instead, from articles and bylaws to marketing and exploring additional revenue streams, VAWC is active in ensuring its members are realizing their full potential together as a system over the long term. Our membership has always had new and ‘veteran’ businesses, from less than a year or two old to more than 40. Both inform the other, and we view worker co-ops as intergenerational assets and encourage all members to steward these unique entities to retain jobs and wealth, increase economic democracy, and to build all other types of democracy.