Cleveland is the birthplace of community wealth building. Their anchor institution agreement was born out of a partnership between University Hospitals and the Cleveland Foundation. While University Hospitals procured $3 billion worth of goods and services, the median wage in the local community was $18,500 and the poverty rate hovered around 25%-30%.
To assist in remedying this issue, the partners completed a procurement analysis, which determined that there were three specific needs that could be met locally: solar energy production, provision of fresh produce, and “green” laundry services. Evergreen Cooperatives was then established to create three worker cooperatives, employing 80 people, which specialize in each area requested. This process has been replicated with multiple anchor institutions within Cleveland to further the positive effect in their local economy.