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#ShopCoop Georgia Co-ops!

USDA’s Rural Co-op Development Grant and GCDC

Georgia Cooperative Development Center believes that together we grow! We provide assistance to startup and existing cooperative businesses across the state of Georgia with the goal of addressing the social needs of our communities and creating a more equitable economy.

Our strategy targets many of the barriers to co-op development in Georgia: education, networking, and technical assistance. We educate stakeholders, particularly youth and opinion leaders, about the values and benefits of cooperative businesses in Georgia. We convene networking opportunities for the Georgia cooperative community to share wisdom and develop their relationships in new ways. With our help, workers research the feasibility of new co-ops (or new business ventures within existing co-ops) as well as tackling business planning which can be used to help secure funding.

GCDC was founded in 2017, recognizing a need for a more intentional effort to support start-up co-ops

We nourish, cultivate, and empower leaders for co-opreneurship with innovative tools and skills so that they can build equitable ecosystems throughout the state of Georgia. We’re shifting mindsets, particularly in the ways we think about working in Georgia. Collaborating, sharing, and growing together through the co-op model with a clear focus on our community. Presently, a stream of brilliant, creative, and innovative leaders are emerging to take the baton for humanity in the coming decades and beyond. Cooperatives provide thoughtful solutions to many of humanity’s challenges and problems. Indeed, we believe cooperatives can solve them. They see problems clearly and have the passion to do something about it. GCDC provides mentoring, technical assistance, and tools for utilizing the co-op model to create the change we want to see. We connect, nourish, cultivate, and empower these leaders along the co-op pathway and for the long journey ahead.

A cooperative worker tends a farm in Georgia