Last of our public testimony videos, but far from least, we have Mo talking about why we’re asking the City of Philadelphia to invest in building the cooperative economy with a 1.3 million grant and probono technical assistance fund for Philly co-ops. Mo is one of the founders of PACA and the Policy Director at the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives @usfwc . She knows firsthand, from doing this work across the country, how critical it is to have governments: national, state, and local, invest in co-ops and through that investment stimulate their growth. As Mo discusses, there is still a lack of education on cooperative structures, which often means that cooperative businesses are kept out of accessing needed resources to launch and sustain themselves. And we need more of these co-op businesses! As Mo discusses, some of our longest running co-ops here in Philly, Childspace @childspacecenters — an incredible worker-owned childcare center (started in the late 1980s!) and Home Care Associates @hcahomecare (started in the early 1990s!) the largest worker-cooperative in the city — they are owned and democratically managed by some of the ordinarily most exploited workers: domestic/care workers. But by owning their business together, they are not exploited. The workers are the owners — there is no boss to exploit them. We need more co-ops like these in Philly. These are the very very last days to email and call City Councilmembers and tell them why you care about cooperatives. Remember, City Council works for us, the people of Philly. Tell you them you want the City to include this co-op grant fund in the FY26 budget. (Thank you to all who have been calling and emailing.) Let’s make Philly a co-op city! (fb)

PACA Board President, Brad, spoke at City Council public testimony day about how cooperatives are answers to many of our economic issues. He spoke on how co-ops are avenues of self-determination for people to come together to solve their economic problems themselves, in their communities and across industries. He called on the City of Philadelphia to invest in and stimulate the co-op economy, as a way of making a more sustainable city economy, with our FY26 Budget ask of 1.3 million dollar grant and probono technical assistance grant fund. He said that Philly can once again by a leader in independence -- economic independence for our people. Email/call City Council today to tell them why an investment in the co-op economy is important now, not later. They enter into negotiations next Wednesday. Email/call today, please! (fb)