From Baltimore Roundtable:

The Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy (BRED) is thrilled to announce that Baltimore has joined other leading cities in committing public support for worker cooperative development. With the award of a $47,000 Community Catalyst Grant, the City of Baltimore is enabling BRED to launch a new initiative designed to pilot the creation of a worker cooperative conversion pipeline. Too many jobs are at risk of disappearing from Baltmore’s communities because too many small and medium-sized business owners lack a good plan for what happens when they retire or step back from their companies. With the proper support and training, the workers at these businesses can be ideal candidates to take over and preserve their own jobs, running them as worker cooperatives in which both decision-making and profits are shared democratically across the enterprise. One national 2018 study identified significant opportunities for cooperative conversions that could preserve thousands of jobs in the mid-Atlantic region across five economic sectors.

Get the full story here:

https://baltimoreroundtable.org/2019/03/18/city-of-baltimore-commits-funding-to-help-bred-accelerate-business-conversions-to-worker-cooperatives/