Bay Area Community Exchange

Obamacare is changing the game of private health insurance, but private health insurers are still in it to make profit. And while they are in the game, they will do their best to rig the game in their favor. Ask anyone who has had a significant health problem. So why do we continue to give control over health care and our money away to companies that don’t have our interests at heart in a matter that is literally life and death?
I wanted to look at alternative, community-based models and see if they actually work. One model is the Ithaca Health Fund, operated by the Ithaca Health Alliance since 1997. This nonprofit, inspired by the Canadian health system and the Amish Church Aid self-insurance program, runs several health-related programs. The Ithaca Health Fund reimburses medical costs for certain categories of preventive and emergency health care and its free clinic provides conventional and complementary primary care visits to the uninsured, as well as classes and a newsletter on preventative medicine. They rely on member fees and grants for funding and local college students to fill the many needed volunteer roles.

The Ithaca Health Fund was challenged by the New York State government as an noncompliant health insurance provider but restructured to work around the laws partly by making “grants” to uninsured patients, rather than reimbursements and restricting their boundaries to New York State. They are still struggling to get official nonprofit status from the federal government even though they are a charitable organization that depends significantly on grants to meet the needs of its low income clients while maintaining fee levels that they can still afford.
Even more intriguing was my encounter with PEACH (Preservation of Equity Accessible for Community Health) at Sandhill Farm in rural Missouri. On a visit there, I asked the residents of this intentional community how they made it without health insurance and they glowed about the benefits and low cost of PEACH. I recently interviewed PEACH’s initiator, Laird Schaub, about this little known program to get the inside scoop.
Read more here

Organization Description
WAGES (Women’s Action to Gain Economic Security) incubates and supports green
cooperatives. Our mission is to build worker ownedgreen businesses that create healthy,
dignified jobs for low income women. We launch cooperatives where women develop personal
and professional skills, become leaders, and gain economic security.
WAGES has established five sustainable housecleaning cooperative businesses in the Bay Area
that double or triple low income Latina workers’ earnings while protecting the environment, and
has provided technical assistance and coaching to numerous organizations across the country
undertaking cooperative development. In 2013, WAGES will expand its model by establishing a
sixth cooperative in a new industry, bringing the benefits of our triple bottom line social
enterprise expertise to Latina women in a new market segment. As we begin the process of
expansion, WAGES offers candidates an exciting opportunity to bring their talents, leadership
and creativity to a unique effort advancing social justice, green jobs and women’s empowerment.
For more information on our work, see www.wagescooperatives.org.

The Position
Women’s Action to Gain Economic Security (WAGES) seeks a Cooperative Developer to work
with worker ownedcooperatives that are in their first years of development or that request
assistance as they face a new challenge. The Cooperative Developer will:
● facilitate organizational and leadership development in worker cooperatives, and
● serve as an interim general manager when needed at newer cooperatives that are in
incubation.
These two roles can at times be in conflict. The Cooperative Developer must exercise
judgement to navigate the complexity of filling both of these functions simultaneously, and be
able to move seamlessly from one to the other as a cooperative’s needs change. For example,
an effective coop developer serving as an interim general manager will seek to provide structure
and guidance but will also gradually work themselves out of the manager role as a cooperative
develops its own capacities to address its management needs.

Requirements
● Demonstrated ability as a facilitative leader, popular educator, or community organizer.
People in these roles know how to challenge, teach, and support others to develop and
exercise their own knowledge and leadership in an organizational context.
● Understands business and can serve as an interim general manager running the
day today operations of a worker owned cooperative as it get off the ground. Direct hands on
experience managing and growing small businesses or cooperatives is preferred.
● Supervisorial or group leadership experience.
● Ability to work effectively with people of diverse economic, cultural and linguistic
backgrounds.
● Excellent verbal and written communication skills in Spanish and English, with Spanish
fluency sufficient to interact positively and effectively with monolingual workerowners.
● Is flexible, creative, patient, energetic, and collaborative in work style.
Salary for this position is competitive and depends on experience. Position includes great
benefits, including health, dental, vision, three weeks vacation, and the opportunity to play a
leadership role in the continued evolution of WAGES approach to cooperative development.

Hiring Process
Send a resume and thoughtful cover letter (1 page maximum) outlining how your experience
meets the position requirements to hiring@wagescooperatives.org with “Coop
Developer –
YOUR NAME” in the subject line. Interested individuals are encouraged to submit their
information quickly upon learning about the position as applications will be reviewed as they are
received.