Melat Seyoum
2:14:46
Good afternoon, honorable chairperson, Valles, and distinguished members of the New York City Council on Economic Development.
2:14:52
My name is Melat Siyum, and I'm the director of political affairs and strategic partnerships at the New York City Network of Worker Owned Cooperatives, also known as NCNOC.
2:15:02
We are the member led local trade association representing worker cooperative businesses and democratic workplaces in New York City metropolitan area.
2:15:10
I'm here alongside my colleagues from the Democracy at Work Institute and the Center for Family Life and our advocacy council members representing 11 other organizations that make up the worker cooperative business development initiative, asking the New York City Council to continue supporting the expansion of worker ownership in next year's budget and firmly into the future.
2:15:30
Since the inception of the initiative, we've created over 200 new cooperative businesses and over 1,200 new jobs that are not only providing higher hourly wages, but also building wealth and assets for individuals who are overwhelmingly BIPOC women and immigrants.
2:15:45
We have seen firsthand how the initiative has to bolster our sector, strengthening existing cooperative businesses and creating new ones.
2:15:53
The initiative partners have collectively worked to create a comprehensive ecosystem of support for cooperative businesses that are not only ensuring the creation of new cooperatives in low income areas, but also the technical assistance needed to sustain businesses and create jobs, as well as the education and outreach needed for communities, interested entrepreneurs, and allied organization.
2:16:13
We did a lot of work during the pandemic.
2:16:15
We brought in over 20,000,000 in grants and loans for cooperatives to keep them afloat, and we did this with a 3,700,000.0 budget.
2:16:24
We are asking the city council to enhance our funding to $5,097,082 in order for our initiative to really double down and do the essential work that's necessary for the long term economic recovery for our cooperative businesses that's really necessary and needed to claw ourselves out of this crisis.
2:16:44
We thank city council for the opportunities to testify and hope that you will consider our budget priorities expired.
2:16:50
During this year's budget negotiation process.
