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Alliance Psychological Services of New York is a worker cooperative, a business owned by its workers with democratic decision making. Worker-owners at the Alliance say the co-op model offers autonomy and sustainability to continue doing the work they spent years training to do, while offering better, equitable care for the clients they serve. They are able to work with clients to determine a fee that the client can afford, while covering the cooperative's expenses and paying the worker's salary. There's no secrets. There's no exclusion. There's no cliques, said Dawn Sanchez, a Black and Latina licensed clinical social worker at the Alliance. It's empowering, said Sanchez, who works part time at the co-op while continuing a full-time job at a nonprofit. The co-op, which extends authority to workers regarding hourly pay, sick time, and the cost of their services is a game-changer. Basic things like having access to the organization's bank account shatters everything you've ever grown up with or seen.
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