Frida Ballard has served as the Cooperative Organizer at WJW since May 2022. She has been on the Board of Directors for several housing cooperatives, including Taos Cooperative and College Houses in Austin, Texas, and Nottingham Cooperative in Madison.
Currently, she is the President and Co-Developer of Zapata, an affordable, ADA-accessible housing cooperative on the south side of Madison, dedicated to expanding cooperative housing for the Latinx community.
In her role at WJW, Frida has incubated two Latinx immigrant-led worker cooperatives, developed a two-part Spanish training on worker cooperatives, and offered workshops throughout Dane County. She has established a fully bilingual support network for incubating Latinx-led worker cooperatives (see organizations listed in first article).
A native and fluent Spanish speaker, Frida is also a Healthcare Interpreter. She collaborates with the UW Center for Cooperatives and MadWorC to develop a comprehensive support pipeline for immigrant-led worker cooperatives, from incubation to ongoing support.
Frida is the 2024 recipient of the William Hlushko Award for Young Cooperative Educators. This award, established by the Association of Cooperative Educators, recognizes outstanding achievements by young cooperative educators who contribute to the development of cooperative and mutual enterprises. She was also selected, through a competitive process, to join the Common Future Accelerator 2024 cohort, which includes nine other BIPOC women and non-binary-led organizations working to address the racial wealth gap. Learn more about the cohort here.
To get involved in the worker cooperative program and learn more about Frida’s amazing work with immigrant cooperativists, reach out to her. You can also support her work by making a donation to WJW today!