Carroll Electric Cooperative Corporation proposes to build approximately 31.4 miles of 161 kV transmission line between the Dry Creek Switching Station and the Smyrna Transmission-Distribution Substation.  The proposed Dry Creek to Smyrna project is located in Carroll and Madison Counties, Arkansas.

As National Cooperative Month 2022 ends, we would like to highlight a special anniversary in the co-op world. The University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives (UWCC), the oldest university-based cooperative center in the nation, is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. Records indicate that the university was offering courses on co-ops as early as 1910, but the International Cooperative Training Center (ICTC), as it was first known, was officially founded in 1962.

High-speed internet used to be considered a luxury for many rural customers. When the pandemic hit, the need for reliable broadband service became a priority.

Thanks to Rural Development’s ReConnect program, rural customers near Timber Lake now will have reliable internet service directly to their homes. The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Telephone Authority recently received nearly $17 million to reach more than 180 rural households with high-speed fiber internet.

When Kim Lawrence of Eagle Butte set out to purchase a home, she knew there was work to be done.

“I had very bad credit and student loans that had gone unpaid,” said Lawrence. “Before I could buy a house, I needed to clean up my credit, and Four Bands helped guide me along the way.”

Lawrence appreciates the team-oriented approach Four Bands Community Fund takes in helping future homeowners like herself. She was set up with a financial coach and took classes that taught her how to budget. They helped her learn the home-buying process as she worked to clean up her credit.

The Boys and Girls Club of the North Valley (BGCNV) fills a critical need in Oroville and surrounding communities, providing after-school social services and enrichment opportunities for low-income children and youth. About 79 percent of those served live below the poverty line and 91 percent rely on social services. 

The California Center for Cooperative Development (CCCD) plays an integral role in California. Cooperatives bring needed services to communities and are a source of empowerment for those who are often disempowered. Rural communities often lack the support services of larger communities, and in this aspect, co-ops play a vital role.

As USDA Rural Development (RD) highlights National Cooperative Month, one worker owned co-op in Massachusetts stands out as a model for sustainability, collaboration, and local food system resiliency. The saying goes “it’s not easy being green.” But for Real Pickles in Greenfield, Massachusetts, the co-op wouldn’t have it any other way; they went green in 2011 with the addition of solar panels on the roof and are still going strong.

For many people across the U.S., local libraries serve as a vessel for community and economic development. But residents in Orangeburg County, South Carolina, went without an updated local library for several years, and the effects were felt throughout the community.

Lindsay is a working mother in McClellanville, South Carolina, and like many people living in rural communities, lacking access to reliable, high-speed internet used to be a challenge that affected her entire family.  

“Especially when the kids came home from school, and I was still working, I would have to be like, ‘nobody get on a tablet, nobody stream videos’… Even the kids had to wait to do their homework on their computers, because if there was one other device besides my computer using the internet, it would bring me down.” 

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, home care cooperatives were a beacon of hope for overburdened health care workers and the industry that faced its breaking point. Many workers who wanted a stake in the day-to-day operations turned to the cooperative business model, which allows workers to democratically own and control operations.