It is important for an organization involved in building and assisting cooperatives to consider the mindset, skillset, and values of the cooperative educators and trainers in order to ensure success of knowledge delivery from the instruction to the student-members. With this situation in mind, NATCCO decided to pool a number of resources and topics that would help improve the trainer’s disposition and way of instruction. This guide presents a number of training points to consider for future cooperative builders and educators - especially on forming their motivations and thinking towards cooperatives and other community-built institutions.

The guide provides a solid foundation on the local conditions of the country and the prevalence of poverty. Moreover, it also rationalizes how poverty has contributed negative effects towards the physical, social, and economic stature of the poor, putting into light how forming cooperatives might act as an effective and valuable “countermeasure”. Cooperatives are elaborately explained in this material, with special briefer on their nature, types, and purposes. Trainers and educators are also given examples of best practices, especially when they are just starting to deal with target communities.