Accountability

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.

“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.

Most co-ops strive to be places of care, community, and consensus, but even in co-ops, boundary crossings happen. How do we handle them in a way that prioritizes safety while treating everyone with fairness and respect? How can we create cultures where consent is so normal that major incidents are rare? We want to hear what happens in your co-ops, cross-pollinate ideas, and share our experience running non-punitive Consent Teams that provide communities with education, emotional support, and mediation.

In co-ops, we often pride ourselves on being inclusive and equitable—but what happens when harm shows up in the form of a joke, a question, or an everyday comment?

This session invites cooperative members to reckon with microaggressions as real structural cracks within our supposedly safe spaces. Drawing from personal experience navigating coded bias, racialized communication, and deflection within cooperative housing, the session will unpack how "small" slights carry big consequences—especially for marginalized members.

Together, we'll explore:

Session materials from “When Boundaries Get Crossed: A Transformative Justice Approach to Consent Violations” presented by Fuzzy Shostak and Emma Daley at NASCO Institute 2024. Most co-ops strive to be places of care, community, and consensus, but even in co-ops, boundary crossings happen. How do we handle them in a way that prioritizes safety while treating everyone with fairness and respect? How can we create cultures where consent is so normal that major incidents are rare?

An example of a Roles and Chores guide from a small co-op of 6 members without staff. This co-op reported smooth functioning of their labor system and positive culture of accountability for completing tasks. 

This is Kalamazoo Collective Housing (KCH)’s Personal and Performance Evaluation Plan policy adopted in 2018. The full proposal is also included, which details their staff evaluation process combining varied common models, methods, and practices and tailored to their co-op’s specific needs. A template staff evaluation is included within the proposal. 

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.

From session at NASCO Institute 2017.

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