Rural communities across the northeast face significant challenges in sustaining small businesses, retaining quality jobs, and maintaining essential services such as childcare and food access

The Cooperative Development Institute, Inc. received a $250,000 Project Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Cooperative Development Grants program (CFDA 10.771), awarded on September 30, 2025, with a completion date of September 29, 2026. The award supports the organization's delivery of technical assistance, practical training programs, and coordinated regional networks designed to build cooperative development capacity across rural Northeast communities. Through this funding, the institute will provide hands-on support to workers, business owners, and community leaders seeking to launch and sustain cooperative enterprises, with particular emphasis on training cooperative developers and worker-owners in governance and financial management.

The project addresses critical challenges facing rural communities, including small business closures due to lack of succession planning, job retention, and gaps in essential services such as childcare and food access. By expanding knowledge and practical capacity in cooperative ownership models, the award aims to preserve small businesses, create and retain quality jobs, and scale innovative cooperative models in critical sectors including food systems and childcare. The long-term objective is to foster resilient, community-centered economies throughout the Northeast through locally rooted wealth-building enterprises that reinvest regional revenues and meet pressing community needs.

Many small businesses lack succession plans, leading to closures that harm local economies and community vitality. Cooperative ownership models offer a proven pathway to preserve businesses, increase job quality, and build locally rooted wealth. Expanding access to cooperative development is not only an economic issue but also a community one, as locally owned enterprises are more likely to reinvest in their regions and meet pressing community needs. This project will provide hands-on technical assistance, practical training programs, and coordinated networks that build the skills of workers, business owners, and community leaders to launch and sustain cooperatives. CDI and its partners will support cooperative development, train cooperative developers and worker-owners in governance and financial management, and strengthen regional networks that share tools, best practices, and peer support. By expanding knowledge and practical capacity, these efforts will help preserve small businesses, create and retain jobs, and scale innovative cooperative models in critical sectors such as food systems and childcare. The long-term goal is to foster resilient, community-centered economies across the northeast, ensuring that rural communities not only survive but thrive.