By Rosie DeSantis, DCWF Project Manager
DCWF is one month away from graduating the participants of DCWF’s first-ever place-based cooperative business incubator program! Reserve your spot for the event on April 8th and spread the word using this link!
St. John, where the co-op academy would have taken place in person, and Oakland Ave. Urban Farm, where Black Bottom Garden Center will be located.
The North End Co-op Academy & Incubator is a 16-week program in partnership with North End Christian CDC and Detroit Justice Center, which launched in November of last year. With their support in community outreach, we surveyed North End residents to find out what businesses were most wanted in the neighborhood, and found community members interested in participating in the program who now make up our 18 dedicated future worker-owners in the cohort.
These participants ranged from folks who had a business idea in mind that they had always wanted to start but didn’t quite know where to begin, to others with significant experience running their own small businesses and nonprofits, to folks who wanted to contribute their skills to a business they believed in, to everyone in between. After getting to know each other for a few weeks and learning the fundamentals of how co-ops operate, the participants voted on the business ideas they were most interested in out of the list generated by neighborhood surveys and grouped themselves into members of three dynamic new cooperative start-ups. Since then, they’ve met weekly in the program to learn about collective decision making and non-hierarchical management, marketing essentials, collaborative & healthy communication, financial planning, customer & market analysis, and more, all while collectively preparing the materials and making the concrete plans necessary along the way to launch prototypes of their businesses this spring and summer!
We’re so excited to be able to introduce you to the three North End-based co-ops graduating from this program: STUFFED Detroit Cafe, Everything Beautiful Beauty Supply, and Black Bottom Garden Center.
All of these coops are 100% Black-owned and operated, made up of Detroiters, nearly all of the worker-owners are women and the majority live or work in the North End. With residents of the neighborhood as collective owners and directors of co-ops proposed by their fellow community members, we believe this place-based model of cooperative development is a way of promoting and ensuring community ownership and self-determination at a time when Detroit residents receive little to no support to address gentrification affecting their communities. We hope to replicate the program biannually in other neighborhoods.
Very soon, you’ll meet STUFFED North End Cafe Cooperative, a farm-to-table, ecologically conscious cafe featuring a full menu of “stuffed” items like waffles, mushrooms, cornbread, and peppers, as well as vegan options, soul food dishes, & smoothies. They’ll be taking pre-orders this summer from their starting kitchen at Mama Akua Community House as they work towards having their own full cafe space in the North End.
Look out as well for pop-ups by Everything Beautiful Beauty Supply Cooperative. They’re a unisex beauty supply store that will feature natural hair care workshops as well as local, Black-owned beauty brands & artisan products.
Finally, get ready for Black Bottom Garden Center Cooperative, a garden supply store featuring educational workshops & committed to sustainable practices and sourcing from local, Black-owned suppliers. They’ll be launching this Mother’s Day (May 9) at Oakland Ave Urban Farms!
“By pooling dollars and resources in a cooperatively-owned business, cooperatives provide a safety net where democracy and ownership are intrinsic,”
- Natosha Tallman, Program Director, Oakland Ave, Urban Farm
Meet these co-ops and catch up with what DCWF is up to this year at the North End Co-op Academy Virtual Graduation Pitch Competition— Thursday, April 8th 6-8pm! Grab a meal or a drink at home and hear pitches from each co-op, then cast your vote for the one that excites you the most for them to receive 50% of the total funds raised through ticket sales & matching donations (the other 50% will be divided between the other two co-ops as well)! The suggested ticket price is $5, but select the "Donate What You Choose" ticket option to give as much as you want. DCWF, North End Christian CDC, and the three co-ops so appreciate your support!
Reserve your spot for the event and spread the word using this link!
