Declaring 2025 as the Year of Cooperatives in Philadelphia and calling on the City of Philadelphia to explore all options to support the development and resilience of local cooperative businesses.

Declaring 2025 as the Year of Cooperatives in Philadelphia and calling on the City of Philadelphia to explore all options to support the development and resilience of local cooperative businesses. WHEREAS, Cooperatives, or “co-ops,” are businesses that are owned and democratically controlled by their members - those who own the business, use its services, or buy its goods - which range in size from the local corner store to Fortune 500 companies, restaurants, grocery stores, utilities, and credit unions; and WHEREAS, Cooperatives create inclusive economic participation by empowering individuals through shared ownership and democratic decision-making and ensuring that residents have a direct stake in both the success of their businesses and communities and the profits of their labors; and WHEREAS, Cooperatives act as anchor businesses in the community, allowing profits to be equitably re-circulated to local stakeholders, and provide a stable source of jobs and wealth across generations; and WHEREAS, Cooperatives further build entrepreneurship through their investments in their workforce to build business and financial skills, and cultivate local leaders who steward their business and community for the long term; and WHEREAS, Research proves that cooperatives also retain workers longer than traditional businesses, driven in part because cooperatives provide higher wages, more flexible working hours, better benefits than typical businesses, and are more in-tune with worker needs…