LevelUp Conversations: The State of Worker Cooperatives — NYC & Beyond

‍September 30, 2026 | 12:00–1:00 PM ET
Virtual Premiere + Live Discussion

Worker cooperatives are businesses—but building a strong business while sharing ownership, responsibility, and decision-making creates opportunities and challenges that conventional business education doesn't always address.

So, what are worker cooperatives experiencing right now? Where can worker-owners turn when they need support? And what can developments in New York City and beyond tell us about where worker ownership is headed?

Join LevelUp Coops for the premiere of LevelUp Conversations, a new podcast-style format bringing worker-owners and cooperative practitioners together for candid conversations about the business of worker ownership.

For our first episode, ICA Group's Joél Mejia sits down with Khalif Nunnally-Rivera to compare notes on what they're seeing across NYC's worker cooperative community—and what worker-owners should be paying attention to.

The Conversation

We'll explore the cooperative landscape from three perspectives:

The Landscape — What's happening with worker cooperatives in NYC right now?
What challenges are cooperatives bringing to technical assistance providers? What opportunities are emerging? And what do those experiences tell us about the health of NYC's cooperative ecosystem?

The Resources — What support exists, and how do you navigate it?
New York City has a network of cooperative developers, membership organizations, technical assistance providers, lenders, and other resources. We'll discuss how worker-owners can better understand that ecosystem and find support that matches what their businesses actually need.

The Trends — What should worker-owners be watching?
We'll zoom out to explore developments we're seeing beyond NYC, growing interest in employee ownership and community wealth building, and what these shifts could mean for worker cooperatives.

This isn't a traditional webinar.

The conversation will be recorded podcast-style and premiered during our September 30 virtual gathering.

We'll watch the conversation together and then bring Joél and Khalif back live for an audience discussion. Bring your questions, your experiences, and the challenges you're navigating within your own cooperative.

Who should attend?

LevelUp Coops is designed first and foremost for NYC worker cooperatives and worker-owners. Whether you're helping lead an established cooperative, navigating the challenges of a growing co-op, or are newer to worker ownership, this is an opportunity to better understand the ecosystem surrounding your business and the resources available to you.

Cooperators, cooperative developers, technical assistance providers, and others from outside NYC are also welcome to join. Many of the questions we'll explore—building stronger cooperative businesses, navigating support systems, accessing resources, and strengthening the broader ecosystem—extend well beyond New York.

What you'll leave with

By the end of the session, participants should be better able to:

• Identify organizations and resources within NYC's cooperative ecosystem that can support their business.
• Recognize common challenges and emerging trends affecting worker cooperatives.
• Consider where their own cooperative could benefit from additional resources, relationships, or technical assistance.
• Connect their individual cooperative's experience to the larger movement toward worker ownership and a more democratic economy.

Free registration is required.

Register for the September 30 LevelUp Conversation

Stay connected to LevelUp Coops

September 30 is the beginning of a new season of LevelUp.

Throughout the year, we'll bring NYC worker-owners together for practical workshops, cooperative case studies, conversations with practitioners, and peer learning designed around the realities of running a worker-owned business.

Join the LevelUp Coops newsletter to hear about upcoming trainings, resources, and new conversations.

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About LevelUp Coops

LevelUp Coops is an ICA Group business education series designed specifically for worker cooperatives.

Traditional business education often assumes separate owners, managers, and workers. LevelUp starts somewhere different: What changes when the workers are also the owners?

Through practical education, conversations, cooperative case studies, and peer learning, LevelUp helps worker-owners strengthen the businesses they own together.

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