The Antigonish Movement

The Antigonish Movement, which emerged in the 1930s, blended adult education, cooperatives, microfinance and rural community development to help small, resource-based communities around Canada’s Maritime Provinces improve their economic and social circumstances. A group of priests and educators, including Father Moses Coady, led this movement from a base at the Extension Department at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. During the years it was active, the Antigonish Movement received financial support from St. Francis Xavier University, Carnegie Corporation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the local Scottish Catholic Society. In 1959, as an outgrowth of the Antigonish Movement, St. Francis Xavier University established The Coady International Institute, named for Father Coady. For more than half a century now, the Coady Institute has been promoting community self-reliance by helping to educate leaders from around the globe. Today, it is world-renowned as a centre of excellence in community-based development and leadership education.