In partnership with the City of Flagstaff and Moonshot at NACET, we are hosting a free 2-hour virtual workshop for entrepreneurs and business owners who are interested in learning about sustainable operations and practices related to food businesses.

The workshop is designed to provide participants with an understanding of sustainability as it relates to food business operations. In the presentation you will learn about some of the key environmental and social challenges related to the food economy and thereafter, about operational solutions you as a food business owner or entrepreneur can implement to promote the wellbeing of your communities, environment and resources.

This will be an interactive workshop so seats will be limited to 40 attendees. Flagstaff residents and businesses will be prioritized, registration will open up to others closer to the workshop date if seats are still available.

Agenda:
- Introduction to food economy with sustainability and resilience framing
- Food economy and resource systems overview (water, land use, energy, etc.)
- Operations breakdown by food economy sector with solutions framing
- Reflections and solutions crafting with workshop participants

Please visit the Moonshot website to register for the event!

In partnership with the City of Phoenix, Thrive is hosting a free 2-hour workshop: Community Wealth & Cooperatives - Building a more inclusive Arizona economy. 

Join us and a panel of local knowledge-holders as we dive into the topic of community wealth building: 

A system-changing approach to community economic development that works to produce broadly shared economic prosperity, racial equity, and ecological sustainability through the reconfiguration of institutions and local economies on the basis of greater democratic ownership, participation, and control (community-wealth.org). 

During this workshop, we will discuss the process of building community wealth via social entrepreneurship, specifically the cooperative business model. Our panel will speak to how community wealth building seeks to empower local communities with democratic ownership, shared prosperity, and equitable opportunities. 

We encourage everyone passionate about co-building a more inclusive and just local economy to attend! 

Click the link below to register for this free workshop. Please note that this workshop is primarily designed for an in-person audience. Online sound quality is dependent on the facility and may not be completely compatible for online viewers.

We invite you to learn about the cooperative food business ideas developed by our program participants!

In this celebratory showcase event you will hear from 2 groups of entrepreneurs as they pitch their cooperative food businesses ideas.

This event signifies culmination of the work that the program participants have completed in Thrives 10-week Sustainable Cooperative Food Business Program.

The program, developed by Thrive and offered in partnership with the City of Phoenix, is designed to offer entrepreneurial capacity building for entrepreneurs looking to create cooperative businesses with sustainability at the core of its operations.

The event will begin at 5:30 and conclude around 7:30 p.m. We will be providing locally sourced vegan appetizers during the event.

***Masks are strongly encouraged for all attending***

We invite you to learn about the cooperative food business ideas developed by our program participants!

In this celebratory showcase event you will hear from 2 groups of entrepreneurs as they pitch their cooperative food businesses ideas.

This event signifies culmination of the work that the program participants have completed in Thrives 10-week Sustainable Cooperative Food Business Program.

The program, developed by Thrive and offered in partnership with the City of Phoenix, is designed to offer entrepreneurial capacity building for entrepreneurs looking to create cooperative businesses with sustainability at the core of its operations.

The event will begin at 5:30 and conclude around 7:30 p.m. We will be providing locally sourced vegan appetizers during the event.

***Masks are strongly encouraged for all attending***

In partnership with the City of Phoenix and Shared Capital Cooperative, Thrive is hosting a free 2 hour lunch-and-learn workshop: Financing Cooperative Businesses.

The target audience of this workshop is financial loan officers and business lenders.

The City of Phoenix is joining other major cities in support of developing a cooperative business economy. Critical to the success of any business is having access to financial institution support. We have prepared this workshop with Shared Capital Collective, a cooperative financing institution in Michigan, to provide Arizona financial institutions with a roadmap of how they can grow their cliental base and support emerging cooperative businesses.

Agenda:

12:00- 12:20: Thrive and cooperative ecosystem development introduction

12:20-12:50: Introduction of Shared Capital Cooperative (CDFI) and the cooperative business model from a lending institution perspective

12:50-1:40: Introduction to elements of underwriting for cooperative businesses

1:40-2:00: Steps for continued engagement and workshop close out

The workshop will be available to join in-person and online via Zoom. For those joining in-person, we will have lunch provided.

In partnership with the City of Phoenix and the Sustainable Food Economy Lab at ASU, Thrive is hosting a free 2 hour lunch-and-learn workshop: Building the Cooperative Food Economy in Arizona.

Join us as we present and discuss the opportunities that worker-cooperative business model present in creating more equitable and sustainable food businesses in Arizona.

In this workshop you will learn about the current state of Arizona’s cooperative food economy from sustainable business experts and a panel of cooperative entrepreneurs. This workshop will be the kick-off event for a series of workshops and other interactive events that deal with the future of the local food economy in Arizona, laying the ground for individuals, organizations and institutions can support the development and success of these value-based businesses.

Agenda:

12-12:10: Welcome and Introduction

12:10-12:25: Presentation of the current state of the cooperative food economy in Arizona by Prof. Arnim Wiek, ASU Sustainable Food Economy Lab

12:25-12:40: Presentation of Sustainable Cooperative Food Business Development Program by Thrive

12:40-1:45: Panel discussion: moderated by Nick Shivka, Local First Arizona. Panelists include:

• Maria Parra Cano, Food Forest Cooperative (Phoenix)

• Ian O'Grady, Phoenix Food Co-op

• Rosanne Albright, Office of Environmental Programs, City of Phoenix

• Sarah McBroom, Project Equity

• Anh-Thu Nguyen, Democracy at Work Institute

1:45-2: Outlook on future events and closing remarks

We invite all people interested in learning more about the cooperative food economy in Arizona – from the latest cooperative food businesses to novel training opportunities. 

The workshop will be available to join in-person and online via Zoom. For those joining in-person, we will have lunch provided by: Sana Sana.