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Social Cooperatives

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Introduction

Explore these resources from the Democracy Policy Network on how social cooperatives can ensure that the growing caring economy is co-created by caretakers and communities.

Below is an excerpt of their resources – to see full resource find link below.

What is a Social Cooperative?

A social cooperative is a model of social care provision in which care (such as childcare, eldercare, disability care, or even other social service and public needs, like prison reentry, refugee resettlement, or environmental and cultural stewardship) is collaboratively provided by an enterprise co-created and co-directed by multiple stakeholders, such as care workers, care recipients, family members, community members, governments, and funders.

It stands in contrast to status quo models in which care provision is created, directed, and performed solely by isolated families or corporate and government bureaucracies. With a decades-long track record of delivering quality care, dignified work, and democratic workplaces, social cooperatives (or social co-ops) have made significant contributions to the quality of life in places like northern Italy, Quebec, South Korea, Belgium, Brazil, France, Greece, Portugal and Spain. 

…social co-ops offer a powerful, tested tool for addressing the accelerating decline in social care quality and provision.

Characteristics of a Social Co-op

  • A primary focus on community benefit (as opposed to solely the benefit of shareholders or workers), especially in the field of social care services;
  • A related emphasis on creating jobs for and serving disadvantaged communities;
  • A multi-stakeholder model of governance (i.e., the coop has multiple categories of members, to include volunteers, community members, local government, among others) which uses a process of co-creation of care services;
  • A democratic workplace which uses open book management;
  • A funding model which often includes procurement contracts with local governments but may also include contracts with private companies.

Social Co-op Precedents

Seoul’s Dounuri Social Cooperative

Dounuri (its name in Korean means “world of mutual aid”) is South Korea’s first registered social cooperative. It serves the elderly, the sick, the pregnant, and patients needing domestic care. Founded originally in 2010 as a social enterprise, Dounuri provided impoverished and elderly residents with jobs as part of the country’s Self-Reliance Center projects…

The success of Dounuri in providing various social services is directly related to the founders’ vision in creating a democratic and stable workplace environment for employees so that these employees can provide a better life-long service for community members. 

Milan’s Pandora Social Cooperative

The cooperative provision of social care—childcare, eldercare, disabled care, and more—is practiced successfully today in the Emilia Romagna region of northern Italy. Social innovation is the value-add for this country’s 12,000 social cooperatives, springing from their ability to offer social services which are co-created by the users of those services in democratically-owned and operated enterprises…

Their remarkable success in Italy (a world leader in this area) comes from their history of delivering high-quality care, co-created with care recipients (as well as family members and community members), their democratically-run workplaces, and their ability to offer dignified work.

Montreal’s SABSA Social Cooperative

In December 2011, a group of two nurse practitioners and three social workers in Quebec City came together for a meeting. They were all aware that an epidemic of hepatitis-C and HIV/AIDS was underway but they had spotted a particularly vulnerable population whose treatment needed addressing— people choosing to live on city streets rather than go to a hospital. They were suffering from various addictions, as well as hepatitis-C or HIV/AIDS, and often lacking a government health card. Initially working unpaid, the group decided to form what is called in Canada a solidarity cooperative… SABSA…

With the power of social innovation, the streets of Quebec City today have fewer tragedies to report, thanks to SABSA’s good work.

Denver’s Drivers Cooperative – Colorado

Over 70% of rideshare drivers in the U.S. are people of color and immigrants from Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. They are subject to widespread wage exploitation by global rideshare companies. The Drivers Cooperative-Colorado (DCC) was incubated in 2022 by the Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center in order to organize marginalized rideshare drivers into a social cooperative. Its social purpose combines improving the lives of both rideshare drivers and the local groups of riders with special needs (elderly, medical patients going to appointments, citizens with no driver’s license, etc.). After two years of organizing of drivers and fundraising efforts, DCC launched its rideshare app, Coop-Colorado, in 2024…

As the first driver cooperative in the US offering a pre-scheduled and on-demand service, the DCC’s drivers receive 80% of each fare, a significant wage increase over that offered by Uber or Lyft. 

Watch Videos

Deep Dive into Social co-ops: Practical Experiences and Policy Reforms

Beyond Economics: the Social and Cultural Value of Cooperatives


Emilia Romagna: Social Co-ops in Italy

Adventures in New Economics 10: Solidarity Co-operatives

How cooperatives show resilience to the crisis

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