Transforming Churches and Communities: Cooperative Developments in a World of Growing Inequality
Collaborative Inquiry Team Grant:
In 2019 the Southeast Center received a Collaborative Inquiry Team grant from the Louisville Institute to explore the links between churches and cooperative businesses (co-ops) through review of the work done historically and presently and by studying the connection between churches and several co-ops that have sprung up in recent years. Co-ops are efforts of the community to create work that is fulfilling and rewarding. By sharing decision-making, responsibility, and profits, co-ops are tapping into our common humanity. The co-op model provides a framework for churches to help foster economic activity that provides not only financial resources but also meaningful work, starting with the most exploited. Charitable efforts that seek to support communities can now be combined with constructive efforts that promote meaningful work, enriching communities in need, churches, and individuals.
This project allows us to explore both personal and systemic challenges of our time and link them to the faith and work of the church. How might co-ops provide opportunities for churches to employ their assets and their social capital in the community more constructively, and how might churches benefit from opportunities to deepen their faith, grow spiritually, and become more vibrant in this context?
Learn more about the CIT members below, and watch some of our recorded conversations with cooperatives across the country and the renowned scholars who study them.
The CIT Group held its fourth meeting with Meghan Sobocienski from Grace in Action Collectives, and John of Grace in Action church.
The CIT Group held its third meet with Rev. Dr. Freddi Haynes of Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas, Tx and Dr. Juan Floyd-Thomas, Associate Professor of African American Religious History at Vanderbilt Divinity School on October 6, 2020.
The CIT Group held its second meeting on September 8. We first met with Bianca Vasquez of the Beloved Community Center and Luther Plan. We also held a conversation with Nathan Schneider, author of Everything for Everyone.
The CIT Group held its first meeting with two presentations on cooperatives and religion on August 20, 202o. In this video, Rosemarie Henkel-Rieger and Benny Overton give an overview of worker co-ops and Joerg Rieger explores the relationship between religion and economics
Mary Lee Bartlett has lived in Nashville since 1981 when she came here to attend Vanderbilt University. After graduating from Vanderbilt and for most of her adult life, Mary Lee has been a community volunteer. She is currently serving as the Advisory Board Chair for her sorority at VU. She is a Past President of the Junior League of Nashville, a volunteer organization with over 1,900 members whose main focus is to improve our community through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers.
Rev. Mark DeVries is the Associate Pastor for New Projects at First Presbyterian Church of Nashville. He has previously served as the Associate Pastor for Youth and Their Families for over 25 years. He is a graduate of Baylor University and Princeton Theological Seminary and the author of several books. Mark is the founder and president of Ministry Architects, a consulting firm specializing in working with churches in transition and founder of Justice Industries a nonprofit organization that exists to build and sustain social enterprise businesses—creating job opportunities for individuals with barriers to traditional employment.
Rev. Stephen Handy is currently the lead pastor at McKendree UMC and the executive director of Congregational Solutions. He is a strong advocate of restorative justice, serving the poor and needy, and participating in life groups for spiritual formation and accountability.
Dr. Juan Floyd-Thomas is an Associate Professor of African American Religious History at Vanderbilt Divinity School. In his teaching and research he emphasizes: religious pluralism, the intersection of race, ethnicity, and religion in United States; the history of new/alternative religious movements; interdisciplinary approaches to the academic study of religious thought; the varieties of African American religious experience; and African American churches and sociopolitical reform.
Rev. Francisco Garcia is an incoming first year PhD Student at Vanderbilt Divinity School and an ordained Episcopal priest. Prior to ordination, he worked in the labor movement for a decade in various organizing, negotiating, and leadership capacities with workers in both the public and private sectors. Francisco has over fifteen years of experience in faith and community organizing, advocacy, and leadership development, particularly in the labor/economic justice and immigrant rights movements.
Rosemarie Henkel-Rieger is a community organizer, author, lecturer, and a co-founder of the newly formed Southeast Center for Cooperative Development, which is educating the public about building community wealth and creating good jobs through employee owned businesses. Rosemarie is the liaison to national groups working on cooperatives and will help organize the travels and encounters with cooperative developers planned for this group.
Vonda McDaniel is an active member and leader on economic issues at First Baptist Church Capitol Hill and is also president of the Nashville and Middle Tennessee Labor Council, a member of the A. Philip Randolph Institute Nashville Chapter and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. She was recently appointed to the TN State Workforce Investment Board and serves as Vice-Chair of the Board for the Music City Center (Convention Center). Growing up in Nashville, Vonda’s activism is influenced by the church she grew up in. First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill was an early center of student organizing during the civil rights movement. Vonda is a graduate of Tennessee State University.
Robert “Benny” Overton is president of United Auto Workers Local 737 in Nashville. He is the former vice chair of Nashville Organizing for Action and Hope (NOAH), president of the Dickson County Branch NAACP, and vice president of the Tennessee AFL-CIO. He is also a co-founder of the Southeast Center for Cooperative Development. Along with Rosemarie, Benny is the liaison to national groups working on cooperatives.
After graduating from Auburn University, Ellen Peterson moved to Houston where she worked in the non-profit sector doing everything from program coordination and communications to event planning and fundraising. She has over 20 years of experience working with charitable organizations, and most recently served as the Executive Director of a Franklin-based non-profit organization, Ordinary Hero, which serves impoverished communities in Ethiopia. A Nashville native, Ellen and her family happily returned to Franklin five years ago to raise their children in the beauty of Middle Tennessee.
Dr. Joerg Rieger is the Distinguished Professor of Theology, Cal Turner Chancellor’s Chair in Wesleyan Studies, Founding Director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice, Divinity School and Graduate Department of Religion.
Dr. Aaron Stauffer is the Senior Research Fellow at the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice at Vanderbilt Divinity School. In May 2020, Aaron completed his PhD in Theology and Ethics from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. Before that Aaron was the executive director at Religions for Peace USA, where he ran national programs countering islamophobia, mass incarceration and training clergy and faith leadership in interfaith community organizing. Before Religions for Peace USA, Aaron was an organizer with the Industrial Areas Foundation.
Marcus Trammell is the Associate Director of the Wendland-Cook Program Program in Religion and Justice at Vanderbilt Divinity School is a 2006 Masters of Theological Studies graduate of Vanderbilt Divinity School and has served for over a decade as a community and economic organizer.