City Launches Co-op Assistance Program

In April the City of Minneapolis launched the expansion of its Business Technical Assistance Program (B-TAP) to include services aimed at supporting the development of new Minneapolis co-operatives through the new Co-operative Technical Assistance Program (C-TAP). The new program was announced at a "State of Co-ops in Minneapolis" event hosted by City staff at Open Book.

Minneapolis has historically been a co-op friendly city, creating more cooperative legal and accounting infrastructure, and a higher level of overall public familiarity, than is found in any other city. Over the past two years, the City's department of Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED) has undertaken an internal review of programmatic support for cooperative development. The result is C-TAP, which will offer assistance to groups interested in forming new co-ops in Minneapolis including feasibility classes, technical assistance to redefine feasibility, board member and organizational design, and technical assistance for co-op retention and expansion.
The program will fully roll out over the next three years. 

To learn more, visit: http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups/public/@cped/documents/webcontent/wcmsp-176405.pdf.