Cooperatives Build a Better Maine, an initiative of the Cooperative Maine Business Alliance

Cooperative Maine Business Alliance is a statewide network that helps cooperatives connect to each other and to the larger cooperative movement. Started in 2007, we have created opportunities for cooperatives and the public to learn about and support a cooperative economy through conferences, workshops, advocacy and outreach.

Maine is becoming a national model for developing a cooperative economy, thanks to on-the-ground work of many cooperative members, advocates, developers and financiers. This network has created a whole new generation of innovative cooperative- and employee-owned enterprises that are addressing the need for good jobs, affordable housing and a healthy and dynamic local food system. However, to fully realize the potential of a cooperative economy and take it to scale, there is more we must do. Cooperatively owned businesses are a key to growing Maine’s Future economy, reversing demographic decline, and promoting widely-shared prosperity in the state. They point the way to more stability – and with that, the dignity and freedom that come from greater economic security.

About Cooperatives Build a Better Maine

We are at a unique moment in Maine. People here and across the US are expressing deep disillusionment in their economic, political and social institutions. People rightly believe that our economy is broken and incapable of helping them fulfill their needs and aspirations, and are looking for alternatives that can offer hope and a sense of control over their future.

Cooperatives Build a Better Maine, a project of the Cooperative Development Institute, offers that alternative.