Community-Led Development Incubator

The Community-Led Development Incubator is an 18-month collaborative learning experience for cohorts of local leaders in Africa and Latin America. The community-based organizations these leaders represent can be formal cooperatives, associations, or social enterprises, or otherwise informal networks. After being accepted into the Community-Led Development Incubator, participants complete three program phases over the course of 18 months. The first phase is the Learning and Design Phase; the second, the Implementation Phase; and the third, the Peer Support Phase. These three phases allow participants to design a community-led development project, implement it with TCC funding and robust support, and report on its impact. Finally, participants are able to join an ongoing TCC-led alumni network of change-makers in the coffee sector. This work allows global communities to combat intergenerational poverty and marginalization in the coffee sector on their own terms, and according to their own visions for change.

The 2024-2025 Community-Led Development Incubator will begin in April 2024. Applications for 2024-2025 cohorts are due February 1, 2024. If you or a local leader you know in Latin America is interested in applying, please contact our Community-Led Programs and Internal Operations Lead, Tessa Tracy, at Tessa@thechaincollaborative.org.

The ideal candidate for the Community-Led Development Incubator:

• Is a leader of a community-based organization in a coffee-producing area
• Is passionate about creating equitable and sustainable change
• Has the ability to commit 10-15 hours per month or more for 18 months, to fully design, implement, and evaluate a locally defined and led community initiative
• Is available for additional remote communication via email, Zoom, and WhatsApp