CIELO

Human Agenda now has a full curriculum for worker-owned cooperative development to help new businesses incorporate the DECKS values of Human Agenda and create a culture of equity, inclusion, democracy, and community wealth building. Human Agenda has also been active in launching the California Solidarity Economy Network. The Cooperative Information Education Legislation and Organizing (CIELO) program has launched three worker-owned female-led immigrant cooperatives in 2024: the in-home caregiving cooperative Alma Premium Care LLC, the ecological regenerative landscaping cooperative Smart Yards Co-op, and the South County multi-service cooperative Excellent Community Organizing and Services (ECOS). 

Alma Premium Care is a collective of caregivers offering comprehensive, community-based, compassionate care services for people between the ages of 60 & 100 who maintain an active lifestyle and seek companionship to continue to participate within their community as safely and healthily as possible, yet may be ill, frail or homebound. We provide a variety of services that promote their independence and safety while they age in their home and with their family. All our services are personalized. We always identify the needs of each person through a personalized questionnaire to achieve a beneficial change in the short term. We offer hourly or live-in services including meal preparation, Alzheimer’s care, dementia care, companionship, bathing, errands service, activities & socialization, and medication reminders as well as Memory Care with our specially trained group of caregivers.

On International Co-ops Day, October 15, 2015, Human Agenda supported the official launch of Smart Yards Co-op in a Willow Glen front yard. Elizabeth Sarmiento, founder of Smart Yards Co-op and former Human Agenda Board President, had designed and built an ecological, water-wise garden showcasing California native, life-supporting flora and fauna and also reusing Greywater, Laundry to Landscape, water. Human Agenda also supported the early development of Smart Yards by assisting with the purchase of an $800 truck (funds later reimbursed), and providing short-term rental space, and offering a platform and voice to Elizabeth, who had the skills and background to run Smart Yards. She was encouraged and supported in her vision of converting water-intensive, environmentally impactful landscapes into ecological, regenerative ecosystems. The establishment of Smart Yards took several years of dedication and steady growth. Now, more than ten years later, Smart Yards is proud to have saved millions of gallons of water by removing thousands of square feet of lawn and replacing them with resilient, climate-appropriate landscapes. The mission continues, rooted in cooperation, conservation, and community.