Chapter: Jefferson County

Jackson Rising brought together 500 people, including Central KY chapter member Ginger Watkins and myself, in Jackson, MS. The conference gave us the opportunity for discussion and information sharing between national and regional authorities on cooperatives, cooperative owners, and others interested in exploring how cooperatives can be part of building a better economy with a better way of doing business. Presenters included US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, Southern Cooperative Association, Southern Grassroots Economics Project, Cincinnati Union-Coop Initiative, Mondragon, USA, Green Workers Cooperatives, and US Solidarity Economy Network. Participants from across the nation were introduced to the basics of forming agreements for making cooperatives work, state policy obstacles to cooperatives, ideas for seeking initial funding for cooperatives from cooperative banks and foundations as an alternative to national banks that often deny funding for cooperatives, and other details about how day-to-day cooperative business is conducted.