Building Better Co-ops Starts with Better Conversations

What if the most important skill in cooperative development isn't knowing all the answers—but asking better questions?

In this episode of Cooperative Developer Stories, Tara Williams sits down with Kate "Sassy" Sassoon, an independent co-operative developer, facilitator, and lifelong co-operator whose work centers on helping people talk, decide, and build together. Drawing on a lifetime spent in co-operatives, from daycare and student housing to worker co-ops and cooperative development, Sassy shares why she believes cooperative development is simply co-operators helping other co-operators.

This energetic conversation explores everything from facilitation and governance to conflict, closure, curiosity, and joy. Sassy reminds us that co-op development isn't just about building organizations, it's about building people, relationships, and the capacity to work together.

Whether you're just beginning your journey in cooperative development or have spent years supporting communities, this episode is full of practical wisdom and refreshing perspectives on what it means to build a cooperative future.

In This Episode

• Why Sassy calls herself a lifelong co-operator
• How facilitation and shared decision-making are foundational to successful co-ops
• Helping groups move from an idea to clear next steps, without overwhelming them
• Why "co-op work is inner work"
• Recognizing life experience as valuable professional experience
• Curiosity as one of the most important skills a co-op developer can cultivate
• Supporting groups through conflict, crisis, and even intentional closure
• Why composting a co-op can sometimes be the most successful outcome
• Building sustainable practices to avoid burnout as a developer
• The importance of professional networks, peer learning, and mentorship
• Reflections on Cooperative Principles 5 (Education, Training and Information) and 6 (Co-operation Among Co-operatives)
• Why joy is an essential ingredient in long-term movement building

Memorable Quotes

"I'm just a co-operator helping other co-operators co-op."

"If you can talk to each other and decide together, then you have the tools you need to build everything else."

"Co-op work is inner work."

"You don't need all the answers. You need really good question-asking skills."

"Curiosity is one of your greatest professional assets."

"Composting is normal. Life cycles are a cycle."

"Solidarity is self-interest."

"Structure your work in a way that creates joy—because that's how you'll still be doing it 40 years from now."

About Our Guest

Kate "Sassy" Sassoon is an independent co-operative developer, facilitator, educator, and lifelong co-operator based in California. Through Sassy Cooperates, she supports co-operatives and democratic organizations with facilitation, governance, conflict navigation, organizational design, and collaborative decision-making. Sassy works across sectors, helping groups strengthen the relationships and governance practices that make cooperation possible.

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Want to learn more about Sassy's work?

Visit https://www.sassycooperates.org/ to explore her facilitation resources, case studies, and practical tools for democratic organizations.

What if cooperative development isn't about bringing a new idea into a community—but helping communities recognize the cooperative practices they've been using all along?

In this episode of Cooperative Developer Stories, Tara Williams sits down with Tamah Yisrael, a New Orleans-based cooperative developer, accountant, educator, organizer, and CooperationWorks! board member.

Tamah's journey into cooperative development began as a member of her local food co-op. But the cooperative principles she encountered there felt familiar. They reflected practices she had experienced throughout her life: family members pooling resources, neighbors supporting one another, mutual aid, savings circles, and communities finding collective ways to meet their needs.

That experience helped shape an approach to cooperative development rooted deeply in community.

Tamah shares how her work with predominantly Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities led her to develop the Black Liberation Co-op Academy, why deep listening is one of a developer's most important skills, and why relationships can make or break a cooperative.

She also challenges us to think about economic participation: where we spend, where we invest, what we collectively own, and how cooperatives can help communities build economic power.

In This Episode

• How joining a food co-op sparked Tamah's cooperative development journey
• Recognizing cooperative economics in family traditions, mutual aid, and community practices
• Working with Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities in New Orleans
• Why Tamah developed the Black Liberation Co-op Academy
• Listening to communities before proposing cooperative solutions
• Why cooperatives are "highly relational and intentional economic strategies"
• The importance of deep listening and intentional agreements
• Why talking about money can be one of the hardest parts of cooperative development
• Member economic participation and building community economic power
• Why Concern for Community and Education, Training and Information go hand in hand
• Anti-racism and anti-oppression in cooperative development
• How CooperationWorks! helped strengthen Tamah's practice
• Tamah's vision for making cooperatives a more widely understood tool for economic development

From Tamah

"Cooperatives are highly relational and intentional economic strategies."

"What is the glue that keeps us together? And it's those intentional agreements."

"Cooperatives create an opportunity for us to create beloved economies."

"This is the work of really reshaping our future and reclaiming our future."

About Tamah

Tamah Yisrael is a cooperative developer, accountant, educator, organizer, and advocate based in New Orleans, Louisiana—Bulbancha, "the land of many tongues."

Her cooperative journey began as a food co-op member before growing into board leadership and cooperative development. Her work includes the Black Liberation Co-op Academy, which creates opportunities for communities to explore and reclaim cooperative economics through a culturally relevant, community-rooted approach.

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Learn more about Tamah's work at TMH Financial Solutions

What is a co-op developer? What makes cooperative development different from traditional business development? And how do people find their way into this work?

Welcome to Cooperative Developer Stories, a podcast from CooperationWorks! exploring the people, experiences, and relationships behind cooperative development.

In Episode 0, host Tara Williams, Education and Training Manager at CooperationWorks! and a co-op developer herself, sits down with Alex Stone, Executive Director of CooperationWorks!, to set the stage for the conversations ahead.

Together, Tara and Alex explore the many paths people take into cooperative development and the wide range of skills developers bring to the work. Some specialize in governance, conflict, business planning, or feasibility. Others work alongside groups throughout the entire cooperative life cycle.

But cooperative development isn't only about building businesses. It's also about people.

Co-ops bring people together to meet shared needs through collective ownership and democratic decision-making. That means developers need to understand business fundamentals while also helping groups build relationships, make decisions, navigate conflict, and put cooperative values and principles into practice.

In This Episode

• What a cooperative developer actually does
• Why there is no single path into cooperative development
• Tara and Alex's own journeys into the cooperative movement
• Why "co-op developers are also doing human development"
• How cooperative development differs from traditional business development
• The importance of cooperative values, principles, and identity
• Why governance, group dynamics, and conflict skills matter
• Supporting co-ops throughout their life cycle
• Why success in a cooperative is about more than financial returns
• How the practice of cooperative development continues to evolve
• Why CooperationWorks! created a podcast about the people behind cooperative development
• The importance of relationships, peer learning, and networks in strengthening the field

Why Cooperative Developer Stories?

There are plenty of resources that can teach you the steps involved in developing a cooperative.

This podcast is about something different: the people doing the work.

Throughout the series, we'll sit down with cooperative developers, practitioners, educators, organizers, and movement builders at different stages of their careers.

We'll ask how they got started, what they've learned, what they wish they'd known, what tools they use, what challenges they've encountered, and what keeps them excited about cooperative development.

Whether you've been developing co-ops for decades, you're just getting started, or you're wondering whether the work you're already doing might actually be cooperative development, these stories are for you.

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CooperationWorks! (https://cooperationworks.coop/) is a national network of cooperative developers and development centers committed to strengthening the practice of cooperative development through connection, education, and shared learning.