October is National Co-op Month in the United States! The annual celebration is an opportunity to lift up the values and impact of the cooperative community. To celebrate this year, our team at the CFAES Center for Cooperatives is sharing resources for learning about the co-op model. This focus is fitting given that Co-op Principle 5: Education, Training and Information highlights the importance of life-long learning across the global co-op community.
The cooperative community’s diversity and innovation create seemingly endless opportunities to learn about how member-owned enterprises are solving problems and “building back better” in their communities.
Whether you’re new to cooperatives or a seasoned co-op developer, you’ll find unique stories about the cooperative business model in the co-op podcast playlist below!
- For ag and food enthusiasts
- “Cooperative strength: Combining national scale with local community impact” from the Something Greater podcast by Land O’Lakes
- “How a fishing co-op formed with friendship” from Meet the Co-op Farmers by the Australian Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals
- “Narendra Varma of Our Table Cooperative” from Collab Farming by No-Till Market Garden Podcast
- For learning about workplace democracy through cooperation
- For global perspectives on cooperation
- For learning about new models of cooperative enterprise
- “Multi-stakeholder co-ops: When are they the right fit?” from The Common Share by Co-operatives First
- “Unions and Co-ops” from All Things Co-op from Democracy at Work
- For perspectives on policy initiatives to support cooperative growth
- “Cooperatives with Jason Wiener” from This is What Democracy Looks Like by Democracy Policy Network
- For examples of how co-ops are helping address challenges with rural broadband access
- “When Take Rates Take Off” from Co-ops Connect by Conexon
- For perspectives on empowering community members through cooperatives
- “Dr. Jessica Gordon-Nembhard discusses how Co-ops are being used to ‘Build Back Better’” from Everything Co-op with Vernon Oakes
- “Making Solar Power Accessible to Low-Income Members” from Along Those Lines by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association