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LCDC Co-op
Organizing Ownership in North Lawndale
Our Co‑op program bolsters economic growth through community-driven entrepreneurship and collective ownership. We create jobs, circulate local dollars, and build a cooperative economy rooted in North Lawndale’s talent, values, and vision.
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Co‑ops, Not Just Startups
LCDC Co‑op is not just about starting businesses — it’s about transforming communities through collective ownership. We believe in the extraordinary potential of ordinary people organizing together to reclaim economic power and build sustainable, locally owned enterprises.
Mission and Objectives
Our mission is to establish a network of multi-enterprise, resident-owned cooperatives that leverage collective ingenuity, shared decision-making, and community buying power to anchor economic renewal in North Lawndale.
Our objectives:
- Organize North Lawndale residents to form cooperatively owned business
- Encourage co-op ownership through training and exposure
- Launch self-sustaining, resident-owned cooperative businesses
- Build financial, managerial, and governance capacity for cooperative success
Our Co-ops in Action
Chicago Chocolate Rebellion: A Black-led, worker-owned chocolate cooperative that crafts artisanal products while embedding cultural storytelling and shared ownership.
Construction Co-op (Coming Soon): A team of North Lawndale tradespeople building wealth through green infrastructure, property rehab, and community-led construction.
Why Co-ops? Why Now?
Every year, over $124 million leaves North Lawndale through spending at businesses we don’t own. LCDC Co-op flips that dynamic by helping residents start cooperative businesses that build lasting local wealth, create good jobs, and ensure the people doing the work also own the business.
Who Can Join?
We welcome all North Lawndale residents age 16 and older who:
- Have a product, skill, or entrepreneurial vision
- Believe in teamwork and shared leadership
- Want to create long-term community wealth and ownership
How It Works
Our seasonal cohorts follow a three-phase model:
- Foundation Building – Learn cooperative economics and business basics
- Team Formation – Connect with peers and form a collective business vision
- Launch & Growth – Receive support to launch and sustain your co-op
Our Impact So Far
Local Business Launch: Started four resident-owned businesses offering essential services
Community Membership Growth: Over 100 residents enrolled as co-op members
Member Training Programs: Delivered training in business management and financial literacy
Every summer, LCDC Co-op trains and hires high school and college students to canvass North Lawndale block by block, listening to neighbors and inviting them into the cooperative vision. These fellows are the heartbeat of our organizing strategy — walking over 547,000 steps, knocking hundreds of doors from Kedzie to Pulaski, 15th to 23rd, and anchoring conversations in places like The Soul Food Lounge, Lawndale Christian Health Center, and parks along Historic Route 66.
They help us stay accountable to the community by bringing back insights that shape our co-op model and organizing strategy. And along the way, they build skills in public speaking, survey collection, data analysis, and radical hospitality.
They’re not just interns — they’re the next generation of co-op founders, storytellers, and community economists. They’re not just gathering data — they’re gathering dreams.
Join the Movement
New cohorts are forming now — don’t wait to build what’s ours.
- Introduction to cooperative economics
- Values-based business planning
- Orientation on shared leadership and team formation
- Explore individual strengths and lived experiences as assets
- Vision alignment with your co-op team
- Consensus building on business type, purpose, and market
- Initial governance design and bylaws exploration
- Begin co-op business plan draft
- Branding, marketing, and customer discovery
- Financial literacy: budgeting, pricing, and shared profit structures
- Conflict resolution and democratic decision-making
- Co-op dues structure, onboarding roles, and formal team agreements
- Soft launch via pop-ups, vending, or pilot services
- Operational workflows (scheduling, production, staffing)
- Engage with mentors, advisors, and capital networks
- Community accountability session and peer feedback
- Official co-op launch and external promotion
- Access to vending opportunities, space, and coaching
- Support with licensing, entity formation, and compliance
- Quarterly check-ins for scaling, sustainability, and shared governance
Throughout the cohort, members receive ongoing support in the form of:
- Coaching and technical assistance
- Digital toolkits and templates
- Peer learning sessions
- Access to a growing community of co-op builders in North Lawndale
We’ve Been Doing This
LCDC Co-op stands on the shoulders of a long and powerful tradition of Black cooperative economics — a legacy that centers community, dignity, and collective survival.
One of our greatest inspirations is Fannie Lou Hamer, who in the 1970s founded the Freedom Farm Cooperative in Mississippi. Her mission? To ensure Black families could grow their own food, build their own homes, and control their own economic futures — free from dependency and exploitation.
“When you’ve got 400 quarts of greens and gumbo soup canned for the winter, nobody can push you around.” — Fannie Lou Hamer
From Hamer to the Pullman Porters, from Montgomery’s taxi co-ops to today’s worker-owned collectives — Black communities have always used cooperation as resistance, shared ownership as resilience, and collective economics as a tool for liberation.
LCDC Co-op continues that tradition right here in North Lawndale. This isn’t charity or charity work — it’s self-determination through solidarity.