SEC4CD Awarded $175,000 from USDA SDGG for Cooperative Development in West Tennessee
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NOVEMBER 2, 2023
Contact: Lathram Berry Email: communications@sec4cd.org
Rosemarie Rieger Phone: (214) 632-5695
SEC4CD Awarded $175,000 from USDA SDGG for Cooperative Development in West Tennessee
The Southeast Center for Cooperative Development is excited to share that we’ve been awarded $175,000 for the Socially-Disadvantaged Groups Grant (SDGG) from the USDA as of October 1, 2023. The primary objective of the Socially Disadvantaged Groups Grant program is to provide technical assistance to socially-disadvantaged groups in rural areas through cooperatives and Cooperative Development Centers.
The awarded funds will be used to support relationship building with the rural and predominantly African American communities of Mason, Brownsville, and Stanton, Tennessee, where we will offer free cooperative development classes and technical services. Worker-owned cooperatives (co-ops) are for-profit businesses that are collectively owned and democratically managed for the benefit of workers. The classes offered will include our introductory to cooperatives class, a ten-week long academy that helps participants start their worker-owned businesses, as well as continued technical assistance to support worker-owners after they launch.
This award comes at a crucial time, when Ford Motor Company’s new plant is already drastically changing the landscape of West Tennessee. This new mega-site development, named Ford Blue Oval City, will consist of an automotive manufacturing plant encompassing vehicle assembly, battery production and a supplier park in a vertically integrated ecosystem. It is being created on 3600 acres at this very moment. This $5.6 billion project will be home to the next-generation electric trucks from Ford and will produce batteries for EVs. We believe that access to cooperative development will allow community members, who have been there for generations, to also benefit from the new growth coming to their homes.
At SEC4CD, we focus on worker cooperative creation with socially-disadvantaged groups because worker-owners benefit far more directly from their co-op’s economic success, as the control and the profits stay with them. With history as an indicator, we know that without focused support of socially disadvantaged communities, the proposed development in these areas will not benefit businesses owned by socially disadvantaged individuals or groups. In many ways, we already see this happening, as landowners are under threat of losing their land and primary source of income due to other infrastructure, like the construction of new highways. A recent Tennessee Lookout article (see Anita Wadhwani) points out that the issue is not with the development, rather “we are 100% in support of BlueOval,” but instead with the lack of inclusion in the potential to benefit from the wealth being built in their home county.
The three towns we are targeting for this grant are all along US Highway 70 with Stanton, the site of BlueOval City in the middle. There is an enormous potential for secondary economic activity here (a once in a lifetime opportunity for our targeted communities) as the State of Tennessee and Ford Motor Company inject billions into this project. By incubating local businesses to meet the needs of the community, gentrification can be deterred and outsourcing of business to other regions held to a minimum. There is a dire need for economic development opportunities targeted towards socially disadvantaged groups so that the local community thrives.