The Community & Worker Ownership Project (CWOP)

Just the training I need?

March 17, 2026 | Jeffrey Elkner

On Friday, March 13, I attended a DNOVA Council at which the following transpired:

• I met Rebecca Lurie.
• I learned from her about the Community and Worker Ownership Project (CWOP).
• I asked her if I could reach out to her by email, and she said I could.

The following day:

• I looked on the CWOP website and found the graduate certificate in Workplace Democracy and Community Ownership (WDCO).
• I emailed her asking if she would be open to taking on an old mentee.
• She wrote back and we have a meeting scheduled this Friday (to be continued...)

The CWOP Curriculum

It's a four course sequence, and all courses are online:

• URB 602 - Economic Democracy: History, Theory and Practice
• URB 613 - Cooperative Management for a Changing World
• URB 623 - Finance and Law in Cooperative Enterprises
• URB 624 - Operations 2: Finance and Law in Cooperative Enterprises

Why I desperately knew I needed CWOP before I knew it existed

• I have am halfway through a traditional MBA program.
• It credentialed me to teach high school and community college business courses.
• It taught me very little about how to work in worker owned democratic work places.
• Many courses left me feeling angry about how our current system works and hungry for collaboration with folks who want something better!

Synergies?

• Back in 2020, Rebecca Lurie was working with the Platform Cooperativism Consortium (PCC).
• I've already taken two non-credit courses with Trebor Scholz, which where helpful in the abstract but did not prepare me for working in a cooperative.
• The CWOP appears to address this very need, and since Rebecca will be familiar with what PCC does, I can ask her Friday if she understands my experience and if CWOP would indeed better meet my concrete needs.
• I'll let y'all know how it goes next week.