Southwest
Arizona Cooperative Initiative
The Arizona Cooperative Initiative’s purpose is to build an interactive system for cooperative business development and develop a comprehensive, integrated system of cooperative businesses and entities for both launch and expanding into an even larger group of cooperatives. In other words: A cooperative built for the purpose of creating, promoting and supporting Arizona cooperatives.
California Center for Cooperative Development
979 F Street, Suite A-1
Davis, CA 95616
The California Center for Cooperative Development provides cooperatives and those interested in starting cooperatives with start up, management, and other technical assistance. Although only founded in 2007, many of the staff bring years of experience from the University of California at Davis Center for Cooperatives, which closed it doors in 2004.
Gangplank
Gangplank is a place for creators. When diverse backgrounds and ideas collide, those moments provide the necessary fuel to innovate. Gangplank provides the infrastructure, both physical and social, for this to happen. They serve as a place for people to explore their creativity, then challenge them to build their ideas into a viable startup – forging a vibrant economy in the process.
SEED SPOT
SEED SPOT is a social enterprise incubator. It is place where early stage social entrepreneurs can receive the support, mentorship, guidance and resources necessary to bring their dreams to life. It is building a community to support people like you with dreams for building products, services, or technologies that improved the lives of people or communities on a local, national, or global level.
USDA Rural Development Cooperative Program
STATE SPECIALIST IN ARIZONA:
Alan Watt, USDA Rural Development
320 N. First Avenue Suite 206
Phoenix, AZ 85003-1706
Phone: (602) 280-8769 Fax: (602) 280-8881
alan.watt@az.usda.gov
The mission of Cooperative Services Program is to promote understanding and use of the cooperative form of business as a viable organizational option for marketing and distributing agricultural products.
http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/coops/csdir.htm
Northwest
Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives (NOBAWC)
P.O. Box 24953
Oakland, CA 94623
Phone: (510) 482-4547
The Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives is dedicated to building workplace democracy in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. The group provides support for its worker cooperative members as well as assistance with the development of new worker cooperatives. The NoBAWC Resource Library is available, free of charge, to NoBAWC members and those doing research on democratic workplaces. The Library consists of organizational materials from NoBAWC workplaces, publications, magazine/newspaper articles and videos related to workplace democracy.
Northwest Cooperative Development Center
1063 S Capitol Way # 211
Olympia, WA 98501
The Northwest Cooperative Development Center is a nonprofit organization devoted to assisting new and existing cooperative businesses, from daycare centers to credit unions. The group’s mission is to foster community economic development, primarily through the cooperative business model. It provides a range of business planning and cooperative education services.
WAGES
1904 Franklin St., Suite 801
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: (510) 451-3100
Women’s Action to Gain Economic Security, has worked with low-income immigrant Latinas to launch green business cooperatives, a model that enables women to work together to succeed. WAGES provides training and technical assistance to incubate the co-ops and a framework for continued learning and business growth through their Cooperative Network.
http://www.wagescooperatives.org/
Other Areas
Cooperative Development Center at Kent State University
113 McGilvrey Hall
Kent State University
Kent, Ohio 44242
The Cooperative Development Center is an organization focused on the development of cooperatives in the Ohio region. They provide technical assistance, advisory services, feasibility studies, targeted sector exploration and help with development needs.
http://www.oeockent.org/index.php/coopdev/coopabout
Cooperative Development Institute
PO Box 422
Shelburne Falls, MA 01370
Phone: (413) 665-1271
Serving communities throughout the New York and the New England region, the non-profit Cooperative Development Institute (CDI) provides cooperative business education, training, and technical assistance to all types of cooperative enterprises, from agriculture, to credit unions and worker-owned cooperatives. CDI is also involved in many different discipline areas, from new cooperative business start-ups and cooperative banking, to leadership development and education.
