Cooperative

Leadership

Intensive

The Cooperative Leadership Intensive (CLI) is CEANYC’s flagship political education and leadership development program for those building New York City’s solidarity economy. 

We welcome cooperators, gardeners, mutual aid organizers, affordable housing leaders, worker-owners, and all others championing community wealth and democratic self-determination in New York City. CLI combines values-driven facilitation with hands-on training in organizing, cooperative leadership, and democratic decision-making.

Cooperative leadership intensive

Basics

  • 6 months

    The leadership education program meets every two weeks for 6 months, with a mix of online and in-person sessions

  • 25 participants

    Our cohorts of values-aligned participants hail from across NYC’s five boroughs and across Solidarity Economy sectors

  • Tools to share

    Graduates are prepared to bring back what they learn to their collectives and to pass on the skills, knowledge and connections to their group

  • Financial support

    We pay people for their time, to ensure that cost is not barrier to participation for those who need it

What Graduates are Saying:

  • "In this political climate, we are essential because we know that we can rely on each other and trust each other, and we really need each other. All of you have reminded me of how amazing my work really is."

    - Amanda
    2025 Graduate

  • "My biggest takeaway from the CLI is just the possibility of what this can be. Our garden is small but mighty but working with all of you, I feel so much of our potential power."

    - Sam
    2025 Graduate

  • "If I can't laugh with you, I can't build with you. Thank you for making me laugh. All of you have made me laugh."

    - Dheivanai
    2025 Graduate

our Curriculum

Over 6-months, CLI participants learn to: 

  • Understand the oppressive structures of the current capitalist economy and explore how the Solidarity Economy framework offers diverse tools for transforming those structures

  • Identify, analyze, and respond to how power operates in our groups and in society as a whole

  • Recognize and cultivate different leadership styles that foster cooperation

  • Sharpen our democratic decision-making, conflict literacy, communication and facilitation skills

  • Understand co-op history, organizing frameworks and core solidarity economy concepts and practice of principles

  • Envision, plan, and build economic ties among sectors of the solidarity economy

  • Gain a deeper understanding and analysis of how solidarity economy groups can effectively build alliances with broader social movements

our approach

  1. A mix of participatory workshops, guest and peer lectures, and popular education tools

  2. Providing tools, practicing skills, and developing analysis and language, including developing pitches about the uniqueness of your work  

  3. Developing a shared vision and strategy for how to grow solidarity economy ecosystems in NYC 

  4. Focusing on peer-to-peer relationships, seeding cross-sectoral collaborations and foregrounding peer discussions about core challenges and strengths, for example:

    1. How to grow and retain membership

    2. Ways to plan cultural events to reach beyond the choir

    3. How to relate our liberatory economy vision to the reality of a rapidly gentrifying NYC neighborhoods

    4. How to strengthen cooperativism and mutual aid amongst Solidarity Economy groups and beyond

    5. How to sharpen political advocacy skills and effectively and strategically ally with elected officials to advance the Solidarity Economy and cooperatives in NYC

The Cooperative Leadership Intensive (CLI) is not just a program; it’s a group of committed Solidarity Economy leaders transforming how power and resources circulate in NYC to ensure a brighter, cooperative future for our communities and our city.

Interested or know someone who can benefit from this opportunity?  Email organize@gocoopnyc.org for more information. 

Join our growing network of solidarity economy leaders

Let’s weave the Solidarity Economy movement together!

Contact Us

Interested in working together or learning more about CEANYC’s Cooperative Leadership Intensive? Send us a note here or at organize@gocoopnyc.org and we will be in touch shortly. We look forward to hearing from you.