Changes

Hello Everyone! My name is Johanna Garay, I am the new organizer for NOVALACIRO. I'll be posting about our progress as an organization.

Heylin and Jeff, our vice president and treasurer had helped me adjust to my new role and get into the swing of things. I have been meeting and making new connections with many people and organizations in Arlington in these last two months. The organization's priority currently is helping the cleaning coop, Mujeres Manos a la Obra (MMALO).

 

 

Learning and growing together

Mujeres Manos a la Obra was launched in October 2021 by NOVALACIRO and Beloved Community Incubator.  The worker-owners of MMALO, Lorena Contreras, Dilcia Contreras, and Anita Maldonado, still need our support with marketing, a business plan, and finances.  The worker-owners are still working other jobs and one of NOVALACIRO’s goals is to help the ladies be able to leave their other jobs and work solely for their business and grow it.

 

One way NOVALACIRO believes we can help the worker-owners of MMALO is by joining the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC).  The USFWC has a network of 200+ business and organizational members and 6,000 worker-owners across the country.  The USFWC assists, trains, and provides resources to its members when it comes to finances, marketing, democratic relations, and mediation within the worker cooperatives.

On February 4, 2022, at NOVALACIRO’s last board meeting we met with Kate Barut, membership manager of USFWC, and she explained to us the process of becoming a member and what they offer us once we joined.  All of the offerings and training Kate Barut spoke about were things that aligned and would be beneficial for NOVALACIRO to be able to support MMALO and bring worker development to the Latinx community we serve in Arlington.