Rozzie Bound exploring cooperative ownership! 

We always envisioned Rozzie Bound as a bookstore that is deeply rooted in community, a vital gathering place and not just a place to buy books.  While we have had to hold off on opening a bricks and mortar shop due to Covid, we are still developing plans to open a great community bookstore in Roslindale.

As part of that planning process, we are exploring the possibility of becoming a multi-stakeholder cooperative that would be owned by its workers and consumer-members.  Cooperatives are "people-centered enterprises owned, controlled and run by and for their members to realize their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations." (International Cooperative Alliance)  We envision Rozzie Bound becoming part of a growing cooperative movement that seeks to replace extractive, corporate capitalism with a values based economy that places people over profits.  

Our first step was forming a Cooperative Steering Committee that already includes a stellar group of folks with a diversity of skills and deep connections to the community.  The Committee we will be guided in its work by Stacey Cordeiro, director of the Boston Center for Community Ownership, through the City of Boston's Onsite Technical Assistance Program. 

We will also be using our website and Facebook page to share resources and links about cooperative economics.  And we have created a new Cooperative Bookshelf featuring books about cooperatives and the growing solidarity economy movement. One I highly recommend is Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice, by Prof. Jessica Gordon Nembhard.