Willy Street Co-op Owners,
On behalf of the Willy Street Co-op Board of Directors, I want to acknowledge the pain experienced by one of our community members as a result of a recent interaction in our store. This interaction was unacceptable and violates our first cooperative principle of voluntary and open membership. The Board understands that embodying this cooperative principle will require work and invite all Owners to join us as we continue this work with Step Up: Equity Matters. Areas of priority include explicitly outlining how diversity, equity, and inclusion applies to our mission, vision, purpose, and cooperative principles. We will also continue efforts to diversify the Board and ensure it represents the communities our stores operate within.
The Board is committed to preventing future interactions of this type from our stores. We support management's move to expedite bias and microaggressions training for staff members and we will be reviewing the results of the investigation.
We understand this work is important and are committed to supporting it in the Co-op and continuing it in our own work.
In Cooperation, Jeannine Bindl, Willy Street Co-op Board President
[On September 30th (after press time), we posted an update about this incident on our website. You can read the update here.]