A "cooperative" is a business model that combines a number of sustainable concepts. They provide shared ownership with shared risk and shared rewards. They are usually local, and keep local money in the community. They develop skills for business management in a wide variety of members. They usually focus on local needs. And they can provide local services that are otherwise not provided or feasible by single owner business models.
In this new age of collaboration, cooperation and innovating our way out of this hole we're in economically and environmentally, cooperatives offer a ray of sunshine, and a heep of help to support sustainable productivity in local communities... productivity such as locally grown food, renewable energy, child care and education, as well as transportation alternatives.
California Center for Cooperative Development
The mission of the California Center for Cooperative Development is to promote cooperatives as a vibrant business model to address the economic and social needs of California's communities.The CCCD is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that promotes and supports a broad range of cooperatives in California including organizations focused on housing, childcare, agricultural, arts and crafts, agriculture and energy. New cooperatives can get help here with start-up, management, and other technical assistance.
The work of promoting the cooperative business model is broad: from providing start-up assistance -- to encouraging cooperation and coordination among various types of cooperatives -- to disseminating information about successful practices and models for cooperatives.
Although CCCD incorporated only a year ago most of the staff and board were previously employed or associated with the University of California at Davis Center for Cooperatives, an extension program that closed in 2004 due to budget cuts. CCCD staff have extensive community development and cooperative development experience.
The Center offers annual seminars to assist Cooperative Directors in effective governance, strategic and financial planning and other issues. Technical assistance to help cooperatives address specific issues is available through a variety of mediums (determined by the circumstances of the cooperative) including referrals, fee for service, or by utilizing grant funding. To help address issues of particular concern to specific sectors of cooperatives, the Center collects, analyzes, and disseminates data, technical knowledge, best practices, and other information.
The Center educates the public and groups interested in forming a cooperative through a pallet of outreach programs. These include basic information about the cooperative business model, as well as practical information on how to organize cooperatives, cooperative financing, governance, management, and related topics.
RESOURCE:
CA Center for Cooperative Development
430 F Street
Davis, CA 95616
P: 530-297-1032
www.cccd.coop
Publication Date: 12/30/2008
