We’re heading to Europe to learn, reflect, and build on our shared vision for a stronger cooperative economy. In Mondragon, 80,000 workers power one of the most stable manufacturing regions in Europe, home to some of the largest and longest-standing worker cooperatives in the world. In Emilia-Romagna, more than 7,500 cooperatives generate nearly a third of the region’s GDP, built on a decentralized, deeply rooted model of ownership and production.

Our curiosity was sparked during the pandemic, when we launched the Ecosystem Armchair Tour, a virtual series of conversations with cooperative leaders from six countries. That project gave us the chance to explore how place, policy, and structure shape thriving cooperative systems, and laid the groundwork for this next step in our learning journey. Rather than let isolation stall our learning, we turned inward to think critically about how place, policy, and structure shape thriving cooperative economies. The tour offered a rare opportunity to exchange knowledge with both century-old systems and newer movements, sparking insights that continue to inform how we build a supportive infrastructure for community-rooted enterprise here at home. (You can read the paper that came out of that experience here.) Now, we’re taking that learning even deeper, this time, together and on the ground!