Who We Are
Formed in Fall 2019, Cooperation New Orleans has demonstrated a commitment to social and economic transformation rooted in culture. CNO’s core leadership of 10 people (and growing) is predominantly people of color, women, working class people, and artists, many from economically excluded communities including undocumented immigrants and formerly incarcerated people. We are a multiracial, multigenerational movement committed to intersectionality. We prioritize anti-oppression analysis and practice, and are proactively strengthening relationships with native-born Black New Orleanians who are currently underrepresented in our leadership.
We are committed to gathering and learning together across different cultures and languages, working towards a world where the most marginalized in our communities have full access to spaces of growth and development. We hope that by deepening and clarifying this partnership in the midst of our crisis-response and long-term work, we will strengthen the leadership of Black and indigenous working class women to lead an intersectional movement for liberation.
If we do this right, future generations will know that we were committed to the work of understanding one another, across language and culture, in spite of oppressive systematic barriers; that we were able to see each other with compassion, grounded in our human connection. Future generations will have witnessed what it takes for the people to build economies that work for our families while making space for the crumbling of oppressive structures that were never created to nourish us.
Click here to read more about the cooperative efforts in our movement.
The Loan Fund Steering Committee
The Cooperation New Orleans' Loan Fund is collectively managed by a Steering Committee. Together we use the integrative consent decision making model to continue building out the loan fund, mobilize resources, run communications and outreach, and develop educational resources such as the Black Liberation Coop Academy.
Sian Miranda Ó'Faoláin
Tamah Yisrael
Lila Arnaud
Susan Sakash
Toya Lewis
Maya Pen
Sally Stevens
Rebecca