Sean Lahman

@seanlahman

A year ago, city officials said they would help to create worker cooperatives in some of Rochester's poorest neighborhoods. At these businesses, employees could become partial owners — and when the company profits, these workers would share in the rewards.

On Wednesday, Mayor Lovely Warren announced the launch of the first startup business in this program. ENEROC will serve as the subcontractor for an LED lighting installation project at Rochester General Hospital.

Doug Caswell, the company's business manager, says the first three employees have already been hired. That number could grow to 14 before the end of the year.

ENEROC is the first startup business launched by the Market Driven Community Corporation, an independent nonprofit focused on the development of worker-owned businesses in the city. Each cooperative startup is intended to provide anchor institutions like RGH with competitive local contracting goods and services. Warren said she expected additional cooperatives to be established this year.

"Startups like ENEROC are a vital component to help support the ongoing mission of the Rochester Monroe County Anti-Poverty initiative to reduce poverty by 50 percent over the next fifteen years," Warren said at a Wednesday morning ceremony. "Each business launched will build employment and wealth-building opportunities to directly compliment the efforts of RMAPI."

Read more:

►What can Cleveland co-ops teach Rochester?

►Mayor: Worker co-ops can curb poverty

►United Way group sets principles for fighting poverty

In the city's poorest neighborhoods, nearly half of the residents subsist on food stamps, and 40 percent of households are scraping by with incomes below the poverty line. Finding work can be a challenge for those residents. Warren says that fewer than one in 20 residents is employed in the neighborhood where he or she lives. More than half of those residents who do have jobs are forced to commute to the suburbs.

"Creating accessible jobs within our city strengthens our neighborhoods and provides greater opportunities for all residents, " Warren said.

One of the key elements of the program is connecting these cooperative startups with anchor institutions such as hospitals and universities. These startups create competitive options for local contracting of goods and services. It's based on a successful model developed in Cleveland, Ohio by the Democracy Collaborative, a national nonprofit think tank with expertise in worker-owned cooperatives and anchor institution partnerships.

"As a consultant on this project, I saw how committed Rochester's citizens are to building a fairer. more inclusive economy, on their own terms," said Jessica Bonnano, director of employee ownership programs for the Democracy Collaborative. "We've been proud to support the community in developing the infrastructure for the creation of further cooperative businesses and we celebrate the collaborative local leadership that made this first business possible."

The board of directors for MDCC includes four participating anchor institutions, including Rochester Regional Health, University of Rochester, Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher. Cooperative startups can help these institutions make an impact on their surrounding neighborhoods.

"Rochester General Hospital is proud to work with MDCC and ENEROC to both advance our sustainability initiatives and create local employment opportunities, said Nancy Tinsley, president of Rochester General Hospital. "Projects like this, although they don't take place in an OR, ICU, or inpatient unit, affect the patient experience, which begins the moment they step foot on our campus."

SLAHMAN@Gannett.com