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The USFWC Co-op Clinic has a network of peer advisors, all with strong social and professional ties, who provide technical assistance services to worker cooperatives and democratic workplaces.
Though we can support you in all-around small business areas, we specialize in technical assistance that cooperatives need specifically: decision-making, co-op finances, boards, bylaws and more.
Our staff and peer advisors can help you…
- Create a roadmap for starting or converting to a cooperative.
- Find the right structure and governance for your democratic workplace.
- Get training in cooperative finances.
- Become loan ready.
- Finish your business plan.
- Create policies that work for your team.
- AND MORE!
We offer high-quality technical assistance and development advice, and increase worker cooperative peer support capacity from inside the movement.
We celebrated the relaunch of our Co-op Clinic and Speaker's Bureau on November 10th! Watch the recording on our YouTube channel.
Learn More
Complete this short Request Support form, which allows you to instantly book a 30 minute intake meeting with staff.
Lots more info in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), and don’t forget to check out the Peer Advisor and Staff Bios, and the Packages and Pricing in the sections below, which can serve as a starting place to find what you need.
- Drafting Bylaws
- Drafting Articles
- Roles and Responsibility for Boards
- Board basics
- Rights & Responsibilities, Decision Clarity
- Strategic planning and member engagement
- Good Meetings and Facilitation
Human Resources
- Development of Accountability Systems
- Communication/Coaching
- Onboarding & Orientation
- Conflict Resolution Training
Financial
- Setting up chart of accounts and accounting filing system
- Providing a draft Bookkeeping Manual
- Setting up Payroll and HR Policies
- Consulting with end of year tax accountant
- Accounting facilitation and training
- Open Book Management
- Help in applying for Loan Financing
- Using Project Management Tools
- CRM tools
- Social Media Tools
- Video editing tools
Marketing
- Digital Marketing and Social Media Strategy
- Brand Strategy and identity
- Business development (market making)
Start-up Support
- Business Model Development
- Business Plans
- Feasibility Studies
- Governance
- Worker Co-op 101
Next level support
- Project Management Training
- Anti Oppression Training
- Preventing Board Burn Out
Our services are fee-for-service at $85/hr for USFWC members and $125/hr for non-members. Pro-bono services are offered when funds are available, particularly for eligible rural areas. Please contact clinic@usworker.coop for more information.
Our professional and culturally competent Peer Advisors are here to provide you with high-quality technical assistance based on their lived experience working in and developing cooperative businesses.
Meet the Peer Advisors:
[EN] = English speaking
[SP] = Spanish speaking
- Devra Gartenstein [EN]
- Kateri Gutierrez [EN/SP]
- McKenzie Jones [EN]
- brandon king [EN]
- Daniella Preisler [EN/SP]
- James Razsa [EN]
- Iliana Reinhardt [EN/SP]
- Andrew Stachiw [EN]
- Stephen Rye Switzer [EN]
- Damon Terrell [EN]
- Annie Winkler [EN]
- Emma Yorra [EN/SP]
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- Devra Gartenstein [EN] she/her. Devra owned and ran small food businesses for 25 years before collaborating with coworkers to convert her most recent business into a worker-owned cooperative. In the process, she fell in love with the cooperative model and began working with the USFWC as a peer advisor. Devra is especially interested in strategic planning and business models, believing that it is especially important for mission-driven businesses to be financially viable so they can have sufficient resources to manifest their dreams. Her most recent venture is New Day Cooperative Distribution, a producer-owned grocery home delivery service.
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Kateri Gutierrez [EN / SP] sher/her/hers
Kateri is a Los Angeles native, co-founder of Collective Avenue Coffee, a worker cooperative. She is currently an MBA candidate at University of Michigan, and hopes to bridge the MBA community to the cooperative movement.
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McKenzie Jones [EN] she/her/hers
McKenzie is a founding member of the Aurora Pocket Neighborhood Cooperative, a co-owned, urban, intentional community that she still calls home. She has steered radical organizations such as the Center for Sustainability in State College, PA and Ithaca Biodiesel Cooperative in Ithaca, NY. McKenzie is a member owner of CoLab Cooperative and runs The Worker Place, a nonprofit incubating worker-owned cooperatives. She believes in worker ownership as a pathway out of oppressive economics toward a just working environment for all!
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Daniella Preisler [EN / SP] she/her
Daniella, originally from Chile, brings extensive experience as a cooperative development consultant, certified community coach and trainer and co-founder of her second cooperative business, Colmenar Cooperative Consulting, which services the Latinx community. As a worker-owner of Home Green Home SF, a worker cooperative of Latina women who have provided ecological cleaning services in San Francisco since 2009, she truly understands the cooperative experience. She has served on the USFWC Board, international committee and Movimiento de Inmigrantes en Cooperativas. Now as a consultant and developer, she advises her clients to develop their capabilities within participatory governance, financial literacy and structure, and effective communication in their cooperative businesses.
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- James Razsa [EN] he/his. James hails from Gray, Maine. He is one of the founders and current CEO of Democracy Brewing. His extensive experience in economic justice organizing includes working for workers’ centers, labor unions, and a climate organization. He has coordinated campaigns bringing together labor, community, faith, racial justice, student, climate, and immigrant groups. James’s worker cooperative experience includes interning for the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives as well as working for Equal Exchange, one of the largest worker-coop businesses in the United States. He also has years of experience in the service and brewing industry. He has a bachelor’s degree in Community Studies and Economic Justice from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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Iliana Reinhardt [EN / SP] she/ella
Iliana S-D Reinhardt is an Intuitive Analyst. She is a bilingual (Spanish) professional bookkeeper with a Bachelor’s degree in Sustainable Development and Mathematics from Columbia University. Most recently, she was a Senior Accounting Specialist at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences. She has lived in Mexico, New York City, and Buenos Aires and currently resides in Southern California, where she grew up. Her passion lies in being of service to others and to the Earth. Her hope is to bring linearity, order, and structure to other people’s finances while also weaving kindness, love, and blessings in the work that she does.
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Andrew Stachiw [EN] he/him
Andrew Stachiw, is a co-founder and worker-owner of Toolbox for Education and Social Action (TESA) where he is the Director of Curriculum Development and Cooperative Education. Through his work providing TA through TESA, CDI, and USFWC Andrew provides technical assistance for a wide range of co-ops, and has designed education for cooperative development organizations around the country. Andrew is passionate about cooperative systems that fight for social justice and much of his co-op work has focused on the food system, land access, and the formerly incarcerated. Andrew lives in northern Vermont, where he runs a small farm and is one of the statewide organizers for the USFWC.
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Stephen Switzer [EN] he/him
Stephen is a facilitator, accountant, and emeritus worker-owner of A Bookkeeping Cooperative and Thirdroot Community Health Center. He consults on finance & operations. Stephen received his B.A. in Geography from Middlebury College and is pursuing a M.S. in Accounting at Saint Mary’s College. A native Arizonan, Stephen now resides in Oakland, CA with his husband, daughter, and dog, Chaga.
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Esther West [EN] she/they
Esther West has five years of first-hand worker ownership experience from Equal Exchange and as a current worker-owner at Ajani Cooperative. In her previous position as Cooperative Development Specialist at the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives, Esther provided technical assistance to cooperatives, conducted market analysis, researched Latinx and national cooperative development and created several databases and analytical cooperative maps. She is currently on the Board of MadWorC and is Vice President of the Board of the USFWC.
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Annie Winkler [EN] they/them
Annie Winkler worked for 12 years at Real Pickles Cooperative where they cut their teeth on bylaw and policy creation during the conversion to worker-coop in 2012. Governance, facilitation, humane resources, and community building are their passions, along with financial literacy and production efficiency. They’re committed to creating processes that work and that are flexible when situations change, while working from lens of justice and equity. They’ve also served on the board of their local food coop.
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Emma Yorra [EN / SP] she/her
Emma Yorra is a Brooklyn-based, Spanish-speaking bookkeeper with 12 years of experience bringing her financial management and facilitation skills to cooperatives, movement nonprofits, and small businesses. She loves to help others develop the skills and confidence they need to effectively run their organizations. Emma worked for three years as a Bookkeeper, Consultant and Financial Educator at A Bookkeeping Cooperative, where she was also a worker owner. She has served as treasurer on boards, developed and financed worker cooperatives, and earned a Masters in Social Economics and Cooperative Business Management from Mondragon University.
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- brandon king (all lower-case*) [EN] he/him brandon is a community organizer, dj, visual artist and overall creative originally from Hampton Roads Virginia where he currently resides. brandon moved to Jackson Mississippi in 2014, to actualize the Jackson-Kush Plan, aimed at struggling for Black self-determination and economic democracy where he worked for six years as a cultural organizer, cooperative developer, and program coordinator for Cooperation Jackson, of which he is also a founding member. While there, brandon served on the executive committee and was a farm anchor of Freedom Farms Cooperative. brandon currently serves as the Community Engagement Coordinator for Resonate Co-op, an international music streaming platform cooperative that’s co-owned and democratically managed by the artists, developers and listeners who use the platform. his main role in this position is guiding the design and implementation of community processes and protocols for maximizing participation and democratic inclusion in collective decision-making.
The Co-op Clinic hosts a free Worker Co-op Startup Webinar on the First Friday of every month to help guide the initial process of launching a new Worker Co-op business. Register for our monthly Startup Webinar and other Co-op Clinic webinars at usworker.coop/calendar
For Startup webinar recordings, mini guides and more information, visit our Startup Resources Page.
If you’re a USFWC Developer Member or Federation Partner, we’re already looking out for clients to refer your way. If you’re not, consider joining USFWC. Either way, we’re happy to discuss how we can collaborate. Some ideas for collaboration:
- Joint application for workforce development or industry focused funds to support affordable / pro-bono TA to low resource communities.
- Cross-promote our educational events (Reach our Comms team direct messaging USWFC on social media or emailing comms@usworker.coop)
- Shared clients bringing in our unique specialties to the project.
- Co-op Developer networking events with new co-op development tool sharing and troubleshooting sessions.
Please reach out here (clinic@usworker.coop) or set up a meeting with staff to discuss potential collaboration.
Here are some specific benefits of working with Co-op Clinic:
- There are many strengths of the peer to peer model, such as finding advisors with the necessary industry experience.
- In larger co-op development efforts such as municipal projects, Peer Advisors could have an early role showing successful co-ops and later role in specialized TA offerings.
- USFWC’s Co-op Clinic has a national reach.
- USFWC staff and Peer Advisors have a high level of cultural competency and experience in anti-oppression work.
Check out the Staff and Peer Advisor bios and the Packages section to see what we offer. We appreciate any referrals you send our way. Please refer people to this page, usworker.coop/clinic or our email clinic@usworker.coop.