Hi everyone!

We had a great time learning about and discussing intentional communities with Roger Wilkens recently! Springing out of that discussion, we’re excited to announce a series of workshops focused around building cooperative culture—more info below!

Plus, upcoming study groups, a new cooperative news organization out of Pittsburgh, screening Harlan County, USA and a tool to help you shop co-op and union made goods online! Check it out!

Cooperative Culture Workshops

Co-op Columbus is excited to partner again with Roger Wilkens, PhD, director of the Center for the Creation of Cooperation, on a new series of workshops centered around building cooperative culture. These workshops will be a great resource for small teams (think non-profit boards, worker-owned businesses and beyond) looking to work together more cooperatively.

Roger describes the first workshop this way:

Self development is the foundation of cooperative development. In this workshop we will explore the 8 levels of self development and the types of cooperation supported by each level. Then we will examine stress regression, a process in which we can observe the hierarchy of levels of self development as we descend under the pressure of stress. Understanding cooperative development and creating means of controlling stress regression are both crucial elements in creating cooperative culture.

Saturday, September 19th, 2026
1pm-3pm
Grandview Heights Public Library, meeting room B (although we’re on the hunt for a larger venue!)
RSVP here

This workshop will be followed by two additional sessions to dive deeper into cooperative culture development.

Saturday, October 17th, 1pm-3pm, covering power plays and co-operative negotiation

Saturday, November 14th, 1pm-3pm, covering bargaining + rescue and wrapping up

Upcoming Study Group Dates

We’ve been reading through E.G. Nadeau’s The Emerging Cooperative Economy and talking about what lessons we can (and can’t) learn about cooperation from history and are looking forward to diving in on solutions for a more cooperative-focused future!

October 1st, 2026
6-7:30pm
Location TBD
Reading/discussing chapters 5 through 8!

October 29th, 2026
6-7:30pm
Location TBD
Reading/discussing chapter 9 through to the end!

The Pittsburgh Progress

In their own words:

The Pittsburgh Progress is a cooperative news organization, owned and democratically run by its workers and members. It was formed in the weeks and months after owners of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announced on Jan. 7, 2026, their intention to close the newspaper. This move by the PG came just weeks after unionized workers there had won a strike lasting more than three years.

Learn more here! And to help support the cause, you can donate here or join the co-op here!

Harlan County, USA

We hope you’ll join Co-op Columbus members on September 13 at 1pm at the Wexner Center for the Arts, which will be hosting a 50th Anniversary screening of Barbara Kopple's iconic film Harlan County USA. Documenting the 1973 Brookside Strike in Harlan County, Kentucky, this award-winning documentary is an essential piece of labor cinema. It is a stark examination of the miners whose livelihoods and lives are threatened and the violence the corporation is willing to take for its bottom line.

Shop Co-ops and Unions Online

The folks over at Garlic And Roses Media have put together a neat tool to help shop co-op and union made products online and I’m having a lot of fun learning about cooperative video game studios as a result!

That’s all for now!

In Solidarity,
Ben, Co-op Columbus