Cooperative Development Institute

Residents of Cedar Falls Mobile Home Park went door to door to the community’s 129 lots to educate their neighbors about a new Maine law that gives residents of manufactured home parks the opportunity to organize and make their own bid to purchase their community when it goes up for sale. They successfully organized 58 percent of residents and submitted an $8 million bid to the current owners of the park. Now, residents have until mid-February to pull together the funds from local lenders and grant programs. Read their story in the Bangor Daily News here: https://lnkd.in/eTUtzU5j #affordablehousing #manufacturedhomes #opportunitytopurchase

The Northeast Transition Initiative (NETI) Fellowship, a 9-month program that brought together business experts from across the region to expand their knowledge about exit planning and employee ownership, came to a close this month and we are celebrating our graduates by highlighting their plans to strengthen their local business communities. We asked each of our graduating fellows — who come from diverse backgrounds including lenders, small business development centers, economic development groups, and incubators — the same five questions to understand the unique needs of their communities and the learnings they plan to bring back and implement. Read what they had to say: https://lnkd.in/ga7NpNQg Congratulations to our fellows and we can't wait to see the impact you all have across the northeast! CDI is a proud partner of #NETI, a partnership of organizations whose mission is to expand the knowledge, resources and tools needed to support exit planning for business owners and transitions to employee ownership.

Thank you USDA Rural Development for supporting cooperatives and helping us to grow a more prosperous economy! Read Director Soares' full column in the Bennington Banner here: https://lnkd.in/e6JqCkR9

We had a blast at the Beyond Business as Usual 2024 conference this past weekend! Our very own Pável Uranga, director of CDI's Immigrant Services, spoke on a panel with our visionary colleagues about how the cooperative model can support immigrant communities and the challenges they face. Click here to learn more about our Immigrant Services Program: https://lnkd.in/g2QTJbhw Thank you to our fellow panelists who are spotlighting the needs of our communities: Javier Villatoro of Tortilleria Semilla Co-op. Denisse Cruz-Contreras of the Connecticut nonprofit Havenly Dr. Gabriela Pereyra of the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust David Molina-Hernandez of Fuerza Laboral Thank you to reSET (Social Enterprise Trust) and Cooperate Connecticut for organizing this event and bringing great minds together on important issues. #CoopMonth

After inheriting failing leach fields and an aging water distribution system, the Sunset Lake Cooperative in Hinesburg, Vermont is securing funding to make water infrastructure upgrades and safeguard residents' health. CDI launched its Water Infrastructure Support Program (WISP) in April 2023 to help resident- and nonprofit-owned manufactured home communities access funding to build safe and reliable water and wastewater infrastructure. Many resident-owned communities inherit aging infrastructure that has reached the end of their useful lifespan, so major investment is needed to sustain these affordable communities for the long term. Thanks to support from WISP, the Sunset Lake community has secured initial funding to address issues and is applying for more to permanently fix the community’s water and wastewater infrastructure. Sunset Lake will procure bids for the construction of the project this winter and break ground in spring 2025. Read their story here: https://lnkd.in/e-U2skv2 #coopmonth #affordablehousing

The Blueberry Fields Cooperative celebrated their successful purchase of the Linnhaven community in Brunswick, Maine with a big party last night, attended by residents, Gov. Janet Mills, and other partners who supported the $26.3 million purchase. We are very proud and honored to have supported the residents through this long and fruitful process. We hope their story inspires more to pursue resident ownership as an option when it's right for them! Watch coverage of the event from News Center Maine here: https://lnkd.in/e8T72ZYV Photos by: Maranda Chung #CoopMonth

Congratulations to the Blueberry Fields Cooperative on the purchase of their community, the Linnhaven Mobile Home Park in Brunswick, Maine! ?We hope that their story will inspire legislators to create stronger laws to support resident ownership, and help to inform residents and community owners across the country that this option is available to them! Read the NYTimes story here: https://lnkd.in/eJKkDUWY Shout out to CDI's New England Resident-Owned Communities (NEROC) Program who worked with residents of this community throughout this process, and to our partners Genesis Community Loan Fund, MaineHousing, Janet Mills for Governor, the Town of Brunswick, and the attorneys at Drummond and Drummond LLP. #coopmonth

We are beyond proud to be a sponsor of the Beyond Business as Usual 2024 conference being held on October 26 in Hartford, CT! Register for free to get involved in Connecticut's growing cooperative movement. Collaborate with like-minded grassroots groups and learn how to build businesses and an economy that prioritizes people and the planet over profit. Attendance is free with a suggested donation of $50. Reserve your seat here: https://lnkd.in/eTjskBvN #coopmonth

Wheelers Insurance Agency, an employee-owned cooperative, has been awarded Oxford Hills' 2024 Business of the Year by the Oxford Hills Chamber of Commerce! Congratulations to Wheelers' amazing team on this much deserved recognition. Wheelers Insurance was founded in 1864. They became an employee-owned cooperative in January 2020. The agency, based in South Paris and Bethel, Maine, serves clients throughout the state with personal and commercial insurance products. It's also one of Maine's leading individual health insurance and Medicare brokers. Learn more about their transition to employee ownership here: https://lnkd.in/e8DH4EJd #coopmonth #BusinessOfTheYear?

It's our 30th Anniversary this year and we are celebrating with a $30K for 30 years fundraising campaign. The end of the year is coming up fast. Please help us reach our goal by making a donation today. Thank you for supporting our mission to grow a more prosperous and equitable economy! Donate here: https://lnkd.in/gsmQDFdK