Community Wealth Building Practicum: Building Worker Cooperatives in Baltimore

Community Wealth Building Practicum: Building Worker Cooperatives in Baltimore

Course Description:

• 4 credit opportunity for FT and PT MBAs
• Primarily based at Smith campus in Baltimore
• Combination of class sessions and group meetings
• Interdisciplinary teams of masters students from business, law, and social work

The Evergreen Cooperatives have created quality jobs for some of the hardest-to-employ residents of several inner-city Cleveland neighborhoods. As enterprises designed to meet several of the City’s largest nonprofit organizations’ purchasing needs, the cooperatives are also helping ensure that dollars do not leak out of the community and instead benefit local people and their neighborhoods. Similar to Cleveland, Baltimore’s most marginalized neighborhoods are also home to some of the city’s most powerful nonprofit institutions, which currently spend billions of dollars a year on goods and services. Could we help nurture worker-owned cooperatives that could meet West Baltimore’s anchors’ procurement needs and create quality, empowering jobs for unemployed city residents?

Last semester, teams of MBA and Master of Social Work students worked together to analyze the potential of several business ideas that had been suggested by members of the West Baltimore community. Through this multi-pronged research process, the teams identified several cooperatives that could succeed in West Baltimore, as well as several other promising concepts. The top ideas were presented for vetting to a multidisciplinary group of mentors including social entrepreneurs, community members, law faculty, and workforce development practitioners. Consensus emerged around the potential of several ideas, including:

•A Greenhouse

•Furniture Recycling/Refurbishment

•Compost Collection, Processing, and Sales

•Interior Property Demolition

•Landscaping with a focus on storm water management

During the Spring semester, teams of masters students from business, law, and social work will work hand in hand with a designated community partner to move forward with launching one of those businesses. Key team tasks will include:

• Instruction on the worker cooperative model

• Further financial and market analysis
• Research on funding options and construction of financing proposals
• Community outreach and education
• Workforce training
• Physical site identification and research into regulatory requirements

This program provides students with the opportunity to:

• Learn about the worker cooperative business model
• Work collaboratively across professional disciplines to start real businesses
• Cultivate relationship-building and leadership skills
• Apply project management principles in real, dynamic situations
• Present their work to multiple stakeholders across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors

Application Process:

To apply, students must send a resume and a statement of interest in the course to Sara Herald, Assistant Director of the Center for Social Value Creation, at . Sara will conduct brief interviews to understand each candidate’s skill set and interest in the practicum.

The selection process will favor students who demonstrate the following attributes:

• Passion for applying the tools of business to achieve social impact
• Project management skills
• An understanding of and appreciation for stakeholder and community engagement
• Adaptability in a fast-paced, rapidly-changing environment
• A level of maturity and professionalism that will favorably represent the Smith School

Students must be selected to be able to officially enroll in the course and will be enrolled viaTestudo by MPO.

Key Dates:

10/24/2014: Student applications open

10/31/2014: Student applications close

11/3/2014 – 11/7/2014: Selection interviews

11/10/2014: Selections announced

11/13/2014: Deadline for students to accept offer

Project Requirements:

Team Charter

Each team should have a team mission that all team members can use as the guiding principles throughout the semester. In this course setting, the charter should reflect the desire to work as a team, the importance of prioritizing the needs of different stakeholder groups, a commitment to being thorough and thoughtful, and ensuring the highest levels of quality and professionalism. It will also include how you intend to work with each other, how you will communicate in the team as well as to the advisor, and set norms for resolving disputes. Team charters should be signed by all members.

Statement of Work

This deliverable defines the scope of work, spells out the research and analysis approaches and specifies deliverables including key milestones and due dates. MBA course content areas should be plainly visible (tools, techniques, models, etc.).

Midterm Presentation

Teams will present their progress midway through the semester to the community partner and practicum leaders. This progress should include secondary research conducted so far (including footnotes) and any first-hand research students have conducted.

Final Report and Presentation

The final presentation summarizes the research findings and conclusions, the analysis performed, and the managerial recommendations of the team. The presentation outlines the original statement of work and the brief history of the project. Greater emphasis should be given to new information and analysis developed since the mid-term presentation. The presentation should also touch on data collection methods and analytical tools or models employed. The presentation should tell a logical, well-developed story that pulls the project activities together into a complete package.

Final Paper

The final paper consists of detailed and substantiated descriptions of the original scope, the research approach, specific data collection methods, and analytical tools or techniques used. The report provides sufficient detail to understand where results come from and what analysis the recommendations are based on. Appendices contain the statement of work, any data collection surveys or questionnaires, raw data or information, and output from statistical or financial analysis if relevant. Proper referencing and citation style expected; no plagiarism will be tolerated.

Peer Evaluations

This grade is determined based on the input from a student’s team members. All students are asked to evaluate their team members at the midterm point and end of the semester on several attributes and provide an overall grade recommendation. This is a critical component to each student’s grade. Accordingly, if there is any team dysfunction, it is best to address this early on in the semester while there is still time to fix any problems.