Cooperacion Santa Ana

Cooperacion Santa Ana envisions a strong, locally-owned, shared economy where products and services are created with dignity and respect for the people that work them and the planet that sustains us. As a high-touch worker cooperative developer, Cooperacion Santa Ana’s goal is to shift power and resources and break down systems of oppression.

Cooperacion Santa Ana is a small, emerging immigrant-led nonprofit organization founded in 2019 to build upon a strong trajectory of community organizing and advocacy for resident-driven, just, and sustainable economic development in Santa Ana. In 2022, Cooperacion Santa Ana emancipated from its fiscal sponsor and became an independent, worker self-directed 501c3 nonprofit organization. Cooperacion Santa Ana engages Latinx immigrant workers who are most impacted by economic inequities by co-designing solutions that address root causes and meet community needs. Worker cooperatives offer an asset-building opportunity for those who may not be eligible for employment or lack access to capital due to their immigration status.

To date, 53 Latinx residents representing 21 businesses have been trained. Cooperacion Santa Ana is the only cooperative developer in the region offering cooperative business development training in Spanish. It has built a strong network of supporters based on equity, inclusion, belonging, trust, intergenerational learning, and culturally-grounded strategies. Cooperacion Santa Ana works with Latinx frontline communities to co-create democratically owned and operated enterprises and businesses, networked in solidarity with one another, and supporting people and planet. The organization is led by women of color and centers the perspectives and voices of those served. The organization is a worker-self-directed nonprofit organization with four staff members, practicing the same democratic decision-making principles that are part of cooperative business development.

Cooperacion Santa Ana offers training, coaching, and incubation, to help individuals establish their own member-managed LLCs, where all workers are owners (not employees). The cooperative development process takes worker-owners through establishing businesses with an understanding of all aspects of starting a business, including legal, liabilities, communication, finance management, and strategy.

Cooperacion Santa Ana serves low-income people of color in Santa Ana who have been historically marginalized, including immigrants, women, youth, LGBTQ, and formerly incarcerated individuals. Santa Ana is home to Orange County’s immigrant Latinx residents who power the labor force but suffer a poverty rate twice the county average. Orange County’s Latinx residents are more likely to be working poor compared to other racial and ethnic groups. According to the 2019 study by PolicyLink and USC Dornsife, “An Equity Profile of Orange County,” the working poverty rate for Latinos (11.7%) is about eight times as high as for white people (1.5%). Among US cities, Santa Ana ranks 5th for the highest level of rent burden (64% of households spend more than 30% of income on housing according to An Equity Profile of Orange County, 2019). A deeper look by zip code illustrates greater inequalities in historically marginalized neighborhoods, where the percentage of those living below the poverty line rises to 27.5%.

Santa Ana, Orange County