Events
In ____ our organization also joined with sister community-based cooperative development organizations Co-op Cincy, Cooperation Jackson and Cooperacion Santa Ana to form a national partnership to develop childcare and other cooperatives.
In our 2021 Strategic Plan, Wellspring expanded our mission to include a key focus on cooperative community initiatives.
Wellspring took over the operation of the Go Fresh Mobile Market from the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts as an expansion of Wellspring Harvest’s food access mission in 2021. Wellspring also carried out a special donation appeal as hunger increased from the Covid pandemic to support greenhouse workers and…Read More
We are founding members of the statewide Coalition for Worker Ownership and Power (CoWOP) that was formed in March 2019 with a founding statewide coop conference. Wellspring has helped to found multiple state and national cooperative collaborations that are helping to build the larger movement for a cooperative economy.
Wellspring was certified as a community development corporation in 2018, becoming the only CDC in the state of Massachusetts dedicated to the creation of worker cooperatives.
After years of work, the quarter-acre hydroponic greenhouse was completed in April 2018. Wellspring Harvest opened its doors shortly after, making it the first commercial hydroponic greenhouse in the City of Springfield. Wellspring Harvest was the second co-op Wellspring Cooperative grew using the anchor institution model.
Co-op Boot Camp is an annual two-part course which provides both a four-week introduction to cooperative forms of ownership, and an intensive ten-week co-op planning process for groups interested in forming their own companies. Boot Camp participants are developing new cooperative businesses in Springfield and, since the class went virtual…Read More
Wellspring’s first co-op, Wellspring Upholstery Cooperative, opened its doors in 2013.
Founding group Wellspring Cooperative took a delegation to tour and learn from Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland, Ohio. This trip galvanized support for a similar model in Springfield, Massachusetts and left people feeling inspired for the work ahead!