After nearly two decades, Henry Got Crops, the farm at the W.B. Saul Agricultural High School, still doesn’t turn a profit. But that doesn’t bother senior farm manager Ali Ascherio. The partnership between the school and Weavers Way Co-op pays off in other ways. The vegetable farm takes up two acres behind the school. A
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Like many deaf Americans, Igor Khmil usually uses American Sign Language (ASL). But when he is helping another deaf individual access public transit information — about routes or fares or schedules — he cannot communicate with SEPTA staff in ASL, as there are typically no interpreters in the transit authority’s stations. Instead, he has to
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Myriam Siftar cried tears of joy. It was March 2012, and she was at the grand opening of Mariposa Food Co-op’s new home, a Greek-revival style former bank building on Baltimore Avenue in West Philadelphia. (Full disclosure: This author is a member of the co-op.) For Siftar, it was the triumphant culmination of a journey
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With a vintage tile facade and large glass display windows lined neatly with books, Making Worlds Cooperative Bookstore and Social Center’s storefront is ideal. However, this charming spot was not intended for retail; cofounder Malav Kanuga first identified the space as a storage facility for his independent publishing house, Common Notions. “The original plan was
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While a worker-owned collective might not be everyone’s dream, these types of workplaces can be pretty dreamy. According to Corey Reidy, cooperative development director of the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (PACA), co-ops create long-term job stability, equitable wealth-building and are safer and more productive than non-cooperative businesses. “Co-ops in the U.S. are two-thirds more likely
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There are dozens of worker-owned cooperatives in Philly, where the employees are the owners and have the opportunity to share profits and participate in governance and decision-making. Here are five local businesses that follow this model, covering a range of services. 1. Home Care Associates Home Care Associates (HCA) is one of the oldest worker-owned
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The idea of ditching corporations that answer only to shareholders for mission-driven models that share power with workers can sound pretty appealing. But how would it actually work? Well, it might work like the cooperatives we already have all around us, and that have been around for ages. Do you bank at a credit union?
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A human wrote this, and a human edited it. A human laid out this page too. I could have asked one of the popular generative artificial intelligence models to compose a 600-word essay, in this case about the concerns a middle-aged writer and editor holds about a flood of environmentally destructive new technology that threatens
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At the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) Pop Up Garden at South Street one evening in August, two long picnic tables are covered in plants: philodendrons, lantanas, begonias and more. Around them, dozens of people anxiously hover, some picking up plants from the table to inspect them, others using their phones to look up the species.
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Uber-urban South Philadelphia might seem an unlikely place to find the next generation of naturalists, environmentalists and outdoor aficionados. But over the past four years, Adam Forbes, founder and director of the Philadelphia-based nonprofit Discovery Pathways, has done exactly that. After early career stops working with migrants, secondary school students and English language learners, Forbes
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