How we work

Lichen Community Systems Worker Cooperative Canada is a non-profit worker-led cooperative. We design technologies, openly share techniques, and provide education to support greater access and self-agency by people with disabilities and other communities. Through Lichen's efforts, communities will have greater access to the tools, human capacity, and education they need to design, build, and sustain their own social and technical systems.

To achieve this, Lichen works with everyone, but prioritizes working with arts, non-profit, and worker-led organizations who work in communities.

Open Source

We share our tools and design practices openly. The Lichen Community Systems Github organization supports a community of open source contributors in collaborating on projects related to assistive technology, creative computing, and community-owned data infrastructure. Lichen projects use open governance practices, inclusive codes of conduct, and recognized open source licenses.

Governance

Lichen is a worker-led cooperative that operates as a not-for-profit organization with the goal of promoting the community-led design, development, and governance of accessible platform technologies. Our articles of incorporation and by-laws ensure that:

• Lichen's work is restricted to non-profit activities with the purpose of public benefit, not gain for its members. The cooperative does not issue investment shares, and profits are used for the purposes of supporting the community-led design of accessible technologies.
• Lichen's Board of Directors serve without remuneration. Upon dissolution, Lichen's property will be transferred to other non-profit cooperatives with similar objectives or to charity.
• All Lichen workers participate in democratic decision-making.