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| navigate: home: magazine: fall 2000: article | |
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Keystone Development Center is helping to create and assist cooperatives By Ellen P. James | ||||||
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Founded in April 1999, the Keystone Development Center is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide economic development, support and assistance to cooperatives. It draws upon the expertise of Penn State faculty in the College of Agricultural Sciences and representatives of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Business Service, Pennsylvania Council of Cooperatives and Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to enhance the economic viability of rural cooperative businesses and the communities they serve. “Overall, we want to provide one-stop resources and information to emerging or developing cooperative businesses,” Richard Poorbaugh, member of the Keystone Development Center board of directors and manager of the Cooperative Business Education Research Program at Penn State, said. “Additionally, our goals include promoting cooperatives as a viable economic tool, providing access to technology and facilitating the establishment of cooperatives to address local needs.” The center coordinates the efforts of a network of private, public and educational service providers to enhance and develop cooperatives, with priority given to underserved and financially challenged individuals, groups and communities. “People are underserved in many rural areas and in some parts of urban areas as well,” said Dr. James Dunn, professor of agricultural economics at Penn State and a Keystone Development Center consultant. “There are only so many ways that the private sector can provide for those areas,” he added, but he sees cooperatives as a way to meet some of their needs. “Pennsylvania has the largest rural population in the 50 states and rivals California with the largest number of rural residents living below the poverty line,” Charles Cathcart, president of the board of directors for the Keystone Development Center, said. “Cooperatives are very strong economic tools for rural residents to diversify and pool their resources.” Pennsylvania farmers are additionally challenged with the changing landscape of agriculture, Cathcart said. The growing impact of large agribusinesses makes it increasingly difficult for smaller farms to compete. In an effort to preserve a way of life for many families, the Keystone Development Center is encouraging formation and use of cooperatives to enable farmers to pool their resources in cooperatives and to find strength in numbers. “Rural Americans usually do not have enough money or power in a small business to buy, sell and market in competition with big companies,” Dunn said. “With the assistance of the center, rural residents are finding power in a group. Cooperatives aren’t a new concept, but they have not yet outlived their usefulness.” The center’s first project was developing the Pennsylvania Guide to Cooperative Development Resources. The book is an easy-to-use reference guide for individuals and groups engaged in forming and sustaining cooperatives. “The guide offers basic information about cooperatives, from their underlying principles to what agencies can help them create and sustain their cooperatives,” Poorbaugh said. “For a start-up cooperative or one already in existence, the guide can help direct them to many services, like marketing surveys, legal services, general organization guides and even examples of what other cooperatives are doing and what works,” Cathcart said. The strength and success of the model can be seen in the Amish farming cooperatives, he said. “While they may utilize simpler methods, they are able to market their products throughout Pennsylvania and even into [Washington] D.C. using their local or community cooperatives,” Cathcart added. Beyond the production of resource guides, the center’s future plans include surveying local cooperatives to gauge their needs and develop strategies to address them. Selected consultants are currently engaged in conducting a comprehensive inventory and extensive needs analysis of business cooperatives in Pennsylvania. That research data will then be used by the center and its partners. The Keystone Development Center also has secured grants for the construction of a Web site that will serve as an on-line version of the Pennsylvania Guide to Cooperative Development Resources. It will offer a database of information and links to find other sites about newly created and longstanding cooperatives. The center’s Web site will feature a bulletin board of educational events and activities of interest to cooperative stakeholders. “Cooperatives allow a group of individuals to better themselves and their businesses while supporting their community. The grassroots support that they receive can be used to further enhance the infrastructure of the rural community,” said Crystal Smithmyer, member of the center’s board of directors and executive director for the Pennsylvania Council of Cooperatives in Patton and Cambria County. “The model of a cooperative works well anywhere there is a common need that is better served by a cooperative organization rather than many individuals,” Poorbaugh said. “Members do not have the time or the skill specialties to do all the tasks associated with producing, processing, marketing and distributing a product. They gain economies of scale and specialization when they work together.” “Nearly one in three Pennsylvanians is a member of a cooperative or uses cooperative services,” Dr. Robert Steele, dean of Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, said. “Helping to sustain healthy cooperative businesses is consistent with Penn State’s mission to serve the needs of the state’s citizens.” | |||||
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© 2002 Outreach Communications, Outreach & Cooperative Extension, The Pennsylvania State University phone: (814) 865-8108, fax: (814) 863-2765, e-mail: outreachnews@outreach.psu.edu |
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