Our worker and housing co-ops create pathways to security, ownership, and self-determination.
VOLTS builds long-term economic power, disrupting cycles of incarceration and poverty, and demonstrates that cooperative ownership is a scalable, evidence-backed solution to economic injustice.
Worker Cooperative
Launched in 2020, ChiFresh Kitchen is a worker cooperative food service business generating $2 million in annual revenue. Operating out of its own 6,125-square-foot commercial kitchen in Chicago’s Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood, ChiFresh provides fresh, culturally relevant meals to major institutions like the YMCA and the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Owned and operated primarily by formerly incarcerated individuals, ChiFresh exemplifies the power and scalability of cooperative businesses to deliver dignified jobs, build community wealth, and meet large-scale demand while staying rooted in justice.
Worker Cooperative
VOLTS is working with a group of five formerly incarcerated individuals (four of whom are women), to create a cooperatively owned food manufacturing business that will offer pre-packaged snacks and breakfasts to food service companies, grocery stores, and more. The first product 6ix-cess plans to launch is similar to an Uncrustable, but with sun butter instead of peanut butter, to make it allergen friendly for school settings. The cooperative is planning to have its official launch in Summer 2025. The cooperative aims to scale production and distribution across regional markets, generating sustainable employment for its worker-owners.
In 2023, Jumpstart acquired and renovated its first property, the Michigan House—a 6,000+ sq. ft. building in Bronzeville—creating cooperative housing for three first-time homeowners. Building on that success, we acquired a second property in January 2025—a six-unit building in South Chicago—expanding our model to support six more first-time homeowners. Our members not only enjoy below-market housing costs but also foster a strong sense of community through shared meals, childcare, and collective living.
Worker Cooperative
Co-op Development
MICHIGAN
BRONZEVILLE - 3 units
We're building a property management worker cooperative that provides high-quality, community-rooted services while creating dignified, well-paying jobs for people who have been excluded from stable employment—particularly formerly incarcerated individuals. Most workers will come in without prior experience, so the co-op is designed with robust training, shared ownership, and democratic decision-making at its core. Our goal is to not only manage properties effectively, but to shift the balance of power in the real estate sector by centering care, accountability, and community wealth.
Upside Down Consulting is working to grow a solidarity economy by supporting the launch and long-term success of justice-oriented cooperatives. Through hands-on consulting, capacity building, and ecosystem development, we partner with communities—especially working class and poor people of color—to build democratic enterprises that replace extractive systems with ones rooted in care, cooperation, and collective power. We are currently supporting the launch of VOLTS as a cooperative development nonprofit that will expand local capacity to incubate, support, and sustain cooperatives in Chicago. UDC is structured as a worker cooperative.
SAGINAW
SOUTH CHICAGO - 6 units