Group Dynamics & Anti-Oppression

This workshop is for white folks interested in learning more about the internal work to make our multiracial co-ops more liberatory, antiracist spaces. Cooperators are great people! And we also operate in a world that has been systemically warped by racism, and our cooperative organizations are not immune to this. In this workshop we will explore the dominant white cultural values that can creep into the way we operate as individuals and as organizations. We'll then look at transformative antiracist values and how we can apply those to our lives and work within co-ops.

Conflict is difficult under even ideal conditions. We never seem to be working with ideal conditions. In this facilitated conversation we will explore the ways conflict is informed by systemic oppression and discuss what can be done about it. Most importantly, be prepared to be uncomfortable.

This session will not cover foundational conflict process and skills. For those components please see Finely Tuned Conflict Process.

Conflict and Oppression PDF

“Co-ops are practical, not perfect” and as an entity, they can often get caught up with an expectation to be a utopian alternative to capitalist structures. Through a discussion of learned experiences, this session aims at providing an honest lens into managing collective work and lateral power, creating systems that empower cooperative workers in ways that make every individual feel heard, while keeping the expectations of what it means to be in a cooperative realistic, restorative, and hopeful.

This is an overview of Co-op Conflict Support. In this slide deck, you will find the limits of conflict resolution, review proactive processes and tools for navigating conflict, and additional resources.

Cooperatives often include affordability in their mission and strive to maintain it. Members in the cooperative will all have different expectations and ideas of what this means when entering the cooperative. This discussion guide about affordability and defining it for your cooperative will help clarify member expectations and long-term planning for your cooperative.

This is a discussion guide that offers participants the opportunity to reflect on ways in which the cooperative movement does and does not support indigenous sovereignty, and to brainstorm how co-ops can uplift the land back movement. These slides provide a few discussion prompts and resources to continue the conversation in your co-op.

Co-ops are businesses designed to pool resources to serve a specific economic need of their current and future members. At the same time, co-ops hold a principle of Concern for the Community and often use those pooled resources contributed by individual members to serve as a social safety net for the membership collectively. This is a discussion guide that offers a few discussion prompts and some practices for balancing the tension between these goals.

Below, are the recordings for NASCO Institue 2020 sessions by room. Please share lessons learned with your cooperatives and communities. 

If you did not register for NASCO Institute and you'd like to support free and low-cost cooperative education, please consider contributing a donation amount that feels appropriate for you and/or your cooperative. Your donation makes it possible to offer cooperative education materials and resources free of charge. DONATE HERE.

These activities and worksheets are from a workshop titled "Introduction to Accountability Models" presented by Evelyn Smith at NASCO Institute 2017.

This workbook is from a workshop titled Introduction to Systemic Racism presented by Aliisa Lahti and J./Jasmine Kyon from ERACCE  at NASCO Institute 2017.