April 20, 2016, Wednesday - State of Co-ops in Minneapolis at Open Book

Agenda
5:30pm Check-in
5:45pm Program
6:30pm Reception/Networking 

Open Book, 1101 Washington Avenue South, Performance Hall

State of Co-ops in Minneapolis

Historically, Minneapolis has 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 most other cities. 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.  As a result, CPED has decided to expand its current Business Technical Assistance Program (B-TAP) to include services aimed at specifically assisting co-ops or the Cooperative Technical Assistance Program (C-TAP).

C-TAP will officially launch on Wednesday, April 20 at Open Book during a public event where City staff will present the “State of Co-ops in Minnesota” and introduce the C-TAP curriculum. The event is free and groups interested in locating a co-op in Minneapolis are encouraged to attend to learn more.  Advance registration is requested.  Individuals/groups should RSVP to Lisa Passus at lisa.passus@minneapolismn.gov.

By creating this new program, the City desires to leverage the co-op model for maximum community benefit to 1) Use the co-op model as an economic development tool to reduce poverty and promote social cohesion, 2) Increase racial and ethnic diversity, and 3) Promote innovation, community building, and local investment by promoting a more collaborative business model.

C-TAP is an expansion of the City’s existing Business Technical Assistance Program (B-TAP). The Business Technical Assistance Program was created to provide business consulting support to businesses located in the City of Minneapolis.  Through B-TAP, the City of Minneapolis department of Community Planning and Economic Development contracts with 13 local nonprofit organizations focused on entrepreneur training and economic development to provide direct services to new and existing small and medium sized businesses in Minneapolis with an emphasis on women and minority owned businesses.