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Built for Resilience
Being a worker-owned cooperative committed to social justice positioned TeamWorks for a crisis like COVID-19. We began providing health insurance to every house cleaner member in 2006, a rarity in our industry. Many other practices and benefits, such as paid time off, disability insurance, and a longstanding commitment to investing in worker education also laid the groundwork for our response to the pandemic. Ahead of the COVID Curve
By the time that authorities were beginning to mandate steps to combat COVID-19 in mid-March, 2020, TeamWorks’ had already been communicating for weeks with clients about the virus and holding trainings to educate our worker-members. We had also developed a plan for the full suspension of cleaning operations, which we implemented on March 17 and maintained through June 8, 2020. As we prepared to reopen we published our bilingual manual for clients and workers (Facing the Challenge, see at right>>) so that everyone is on the same page about protocols and expectations. |
Clients and workers are required to follow the COVID-19 practices outlined in our Facing Challenge manual. (Click doc image below; PDF viewer will open in a new tab.)
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Partnerships for Economic Stability
We are deeply grateful that TeamWorks clients were concerned about the financial stability of their house cleaners during the worst months of the pandemic. Many offered to continue paying during the suspension of operations even though we could not provide cleaning services. THANK YOU, clients!
Funds donated were used by the co-op to provide stipends to members who participated in an intensive online education program. Donations and a grant from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development to support these efforts also helped us to maintain members' health insurance coverage throughout the crisis.
We are deeply grateful that TeamWorks clients were concerned about the financial stability of their house cleaners during the worst months of the pandemic. Many offered to continue paying during the suspension of operations even though we could not provide cleaning services. THANK YOU, clients!
Funds donated were used by the co-op to provide stipends to members who participated in an intensive online education program. Donations and a grant from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development to support these efforts also helped us to maintain members' health insurance coverage throughout the crisis.
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Silver Lining:
Transformative Member Education Since members were unable to go to work during the months of mandated "shelter-in-place", we figured this was an opportunity to double down on the co-op's longstanding commitment to education. Every member already had a chromebook and some basic familiarity with how to use it. But we had not learned how to run virtual meetings. So the first focus of the Quarantine Education Program was getting to the point where everyone could successfully connect to and participate effectively in online meetings. 
TeamWorks members have become skilled at running engaging and effective online meetings.
Ivette worked intensively with the Committee leaders one-on-one and in small groups. These leaders learned everything they needed to run a committee, and the added skills of how to do so completely online. Leaders negotiated agreements about when meetings would happen, ground rules, developed agendas, and learned to facilitate group decision-making, and the implementation and accountability for projects.
This Quarantine Education Program required participants to commit to a minimum of seven hours weekly (spent on a combination of formal classes, “homework”, committee meetings, and projects). At the end of the three-month quarantine period, Ivette organized an online graduation for the members who completed the program. Most members have had very limited access to formal education in the past -- many did not have the opportunity to continue past the elementary or middle school level when they were children. So it was a very significant and emotional event to recognize the learning that members accomplished! |
Use of Donated Funds
Member Support: 90% Member Stipends: 73% Health and Disability Insurance: 17% Co-op overhead: 5% (office rent , liability insurance, etc.) Save for long crisis: 5% This required extensive work one-on-one by phone with co-op members to insure that each member had a reliable internet connection at home.Then as the members got to the point where everyone could connect to an online meeting, the training focused on developing the agreements and skills needed to run effective meetings and make decisions as a group. These practices and skills drew on Sociocracy, a method for engaging groups in shared decision making.
An outside trainer, Ivette Melendez, was contracted to lead the intensive training program during the quarantine. At first she taught workshops directly but she shifted to coaching members to lead meetings and trainings themselves. She identified several members who became leaders of two committees, one with a focus on Well Being and the other on Entrepreneurial Development. The committees researched and led workshops on topics ranging from stress management and to managing personal finances. 
Coach and trainer Ivette Melendez (left foreground in white) with members at a co-op celebration (Fall, 2019 -- pre-COVID-19).
The most exciting part of this program is its lasting impacts. The co-op is now cleaning homes again. But the members continue to hold regular online meetings and workshops, and they are organizing these events themselves without Ivette's help. The level of participation by co-op members is much higher than before the pandemic -- when these events were held in-person. This is a incredible silver lining of the three month “shelter-in-place” period that we believe will pay dividends far into the future.
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