CoopZone was incorporated in 2009, after the successful completion of a business case, financially supported by The Co-operators. Since then, though autonomous in terms of governance, our administration and management has been supported first by the Canadian Worker Co-op Federation (CWCF), followed by Conseil de la coopération de l’Ontario (CCO).

We work closely with co-op organizations across Canada, especially the CWCF, as our members are deeply rooted in the Canadian co-operative community. We have been supported by a number of institutional co-operatives and mutuals since our inception, including The Co-operators, VanCity, the Assiniboine Credit Union.

Our governance structure is made up of 8 seats, including 5 regional directors (BC, Prairies, Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic), one Professional Service Provider seat (for the CZ Legal Network), and two at-large directors.

• Facilitate information and resource sharing among co-operative developers across the country
• Topical and timely webinars
• A unified and representative voice for co-operative developers across Canada
• Online Training Program, including our introductory and advanced programs for co-operative developers
• Maintaining this website to centralize information pertaining to co-operative development in Canada

We have approximately 40 members, including co-operative developers, lawyers within the co-op sector, and other professional service providers. The way in which they have invested in the co-op is through annual member dues, and also freely sharing their time and expertise through providing webinars without charge (by both co-op developer and lawyer members) and by responding to questions on the very active listserv of members.

Courses cost $750 each. We encourage people without the financial means to apply for bursaries to take our co-op developer training courses.

The CoopZone Training Program owes much of its success to the generous support of co-operative organizations from coast to coast who are able to contribute training bursaries to help cover the tuition cost of some trainees, including Co-operators, Canadian Worker Co-op Federation (CWCF), Red House Solutions and Iler Campbell.

Each course involves a time commitment of one to two hours a week, depending on the student’s level of participation working through:

• A rich digital collection of digital articles, tools and case studies
• Two 60 – 90 minute participatory webinars for each course, and access to the recordings
• Two 60 minute mentorship sessions for each course with your co-op developer mentor
• One peer group assignment with other participants and two individual assignments for each course, typically one per month. Assignments are evaluated by the instructors on a pass/fail basis.

“CoopZone instructors are great, and the mentoring system gave me the chance to have hours of one-on-one time with an expert in the field.”

“I was extremely happy with the program overall, between the friends and peers, the training and the facilitators, and the mentoring, this program is second to none. I would highly suggest it to anyone interested or curious about the world of co-operative development.”

Everyone! Including, but not limited to:

• Anyone interested in the solidarity economy and/or social enterprises
• Anyone focusing on Indigenous and Inuit economic ownership and control
• Employees and directors of sectoral co-op federations
• Business development advisors and organizations
• Community economic development practitioners
• Equity-deserving groups focusing on shared goals and needs
• Founding employee-owners and directors of new(er) worker co-ops
• Steering group members exploring co-op models for the first time
• Newly incorporated co-ops who are building their foundation and future
• Employees and directors of provincial co-operative associations

Co-operatives are actively pursuing and implementing JEDI policies and practices, and CoopZone reaches out to equity-deserving groups to encourage their participation in our co-op developer courses. The rich and diverse experience brought by the participants adds immensely to the peer learning aspects of the courses.