SeaForester is Earth Equity's co-op incubator program in Humboldt CA. Each week formerly incarcerated worker-owners to design California's first reentry support and regenerative aquacultue cooperative. The purpose of our emerging co-op is to reduce recidivism, revitalize kelp ecosystems, and create community wellbeing. By collaborating with seaweed, urchins, and one another, we will nourish and strengthen our community, empower system-impacted people, build meaningful relationships, and support self determination through economic justice.
SeaForester will create well-paid jobs, job training, and pathways to business ownership for formerly incarcerated people. By supporting economic growth & financial stability for people coming home from prison, we will help them build autonomy and break cycles of poverty which cause recidivism. By providing jobs which are fulfilling and prioritize wellbeing, we will create a sense of purpose and belonging for workers that help them to permanently stay out of prison.
We have chosen a cooperative business model because co-op principles and values directly remedy the isolation, alienation, extractivism, and dehumanization which power prisons and recidivism. The co-op model helps system-impacted people build independence, connection, and trust. When people in reentry can rely on themselves & others, find acceptance & support, and build on their knowledge & interests, they are more likely to find a home beyond prison than return to it.
The cooperative model contributes to community wellbeing as it prioritizes people over profit. Instead of ending up in the hands of a few stockholders, any profits or surplus made within a cooperative are reinvested directly into the community and co-op members. The cooperative model hinges on accessibility, equity, education and concern for the community. It is an important step in a Just Transition from extractive to regenerative economies which honor people and the planet.
Lastly, SeaForester will help system-impacted people to get and stay healthy through nutrition education and accessible healing foods (like seaweed). When these folks can prevent & manage illnesses caused by prisons and colonization, they will be able to build necessary energy for successful, sustainable reentry and long-term healing.
