Building upon the body of knowledge re: rural cooperatives generated by the Office of Economic Opportunity and its research and demonstration programs, this paper proposes a design for a national program of Federal support for cooperatives serving the rural poor. Specifically, this paper presents: (1) the basic situation of the rural poor and the prior programs supporting rural poor cooperatives; (2) the major policy aims for a national program (an historically proven mechanism for increasing small farmer and rural nonfarm income; a financial basis for those wishing to remain in rural areas; a business enterprise focus for human resource development; a national network of new, emerging, and existing rural cooperatives; and research and demonstrations to further develop cooperative mechanism utility); (3) proposed program dimensions (rural-urban, declining-growing, hostility-receptivity, membership eligibility dimensions); (4) essential elements of the national program design (Federal commitment to: support the effort over a 10-year period; encourage the private sector to support the program; and maintain the human development focus); (5) types of cooperatives to be supported (business component only; business and training components; or business, training and supplementary community development components); (6) estimated costs of the proposed program; (7) legislative authorization (Title VII, Economic Opportunity Amendments of 1972 and the 1972 Rural Development Act). (JC)