In March 2026, we completed our 2023-2026 Strategic Plan. Reflecting on the past 3 years, we had several successes. First, we established a clearer organizational identity — focusing on climate and economic justice so that everyday Miamians can afford to stay and live well for generations to come. We also updated our values and articulated our approach — how it is we do our work. As a result, we saw staff confidence in speaking about the organization increase from 35% to 95%. We also saw more staff co-creating programs with community members (an increase from 24% to 43% for those who always co-create, and a drop from 10% to 0% for those that never do). Lastly, since we added horizontal teams, which intentionally work across departments, we have seen more cross-collaboration, new ideas, less duplication, and increased efficiency in our work.

As for lessons learned, when researching other cooperative development organizations most reported taking several years to roll out the breadth of programming we introduced all at once. Our real estate initiative was particularly challenging, and we’ve learned to have solid partnerships and long-term funding structures in place before launching complex, large-scale initiatives. Going forward, our cooperative academy is now incorporated into our suite of leadership programs, and our cooperative incubation services are now a part of our small business program.

For our next 3-year strategic plan, we will be building on key areas of progress. This includes continuing to explore how we can expand our secondary intake initiative, which recruits service clients to participate in our policy/advocacy work. It also includes deepening community leadership within our work as a whole.