Who we serve
Cooperative Sectors
NWCDC is devoted to assisting new and existing cooperative businesses in every sector with a special emphasis on Resident Owned Communities, home care agencies, and converting existing businesses into worker-owned or community-owned cooperatives.
Meet some of our co-op clients
Manufactured Housing
NWCDC educates public entities and community institutions about cooperatives while also providing technical assistance for cooperative launch and development.
Worker Co-ops
A worker cooperative is a democratically controlled business owned by its worker-owners. A worker cooperative is organized to serve the needs of its worker-owners by generating benefits (which may or may not be profits) for the worker-owners rather than external investors.
Worker-owned cooperatives operate in numerous lines of business across the nation. Some of the business sectors include childcare, commercial and residential cleaning, food service, home care, technology, consumer retail and services, manufacturing, wholesaling and many others. Examples include:
In the Northwest area, NWCDC has assisted Circle of Life Cooperative, Peninsula Homecare, and Capital Homecare providing home care services in Washington State, and Blue Scorcher Artisan Cooperative, a bakery in Astoria, Oregon.
Most recently, NWCDC assisted Dumpster Values and Business Services Cooperative convert to worker owned businesses.
For more information, contact NWCDC at (360) 943-4241 or by email.
Ag and Natural Resources
Cooperatives are flourishing in a wide variety of agriculture and natural resources businesses. We have provided technical assistance to cooperatives for:
- Mobile meat and poultry processing
- Biofuels
- Wind energy
- Forestry management
- Agricultural product marketing
- Irrigation management
- Farm land and lease management
- Online local products ordering and distribution
Recent Projects:
Food Co-ops
Cooperatives are uniquely linking local people with local foods.
- Co-ops provide online shopping for local foods.
- Co-ops operate retail food stores and feature local farmers.
- Co-ops jointly market local products.
- Co-ops are owned by farmers, ranchers and consumers, you and your neighbor.
We have assisted communities from Oregon to Alaska, and Hawaii to Idaho to connect with local foods through cooperatives.
The innovation of cooperatives was featured in the 2012 conference, Cultivating NW Co-ops: Celebrating Our Food Community. The conference featured speakers from cooperatives providing meat processing, grain and legume marketing, rural electricity, financial services, retail grocery sales, and online local product sales.
These and many other cooperatives are benefiting their communities across the nation.
