A people-centred approach to local economic development
Growing the Co-op Economy
From Community Wealth Building to Cooperative Placemaking - these resources are designed to grow the cooperative economy
Encouraging Members to grow the coop economy
Some of the barriers to developing the cooperative economy will be the same across the country and others will be specific to a particular area. We are fortunate to have some councils in the Network that are leading the way in developing the cooperative economy and overcoming some of these challenges. Wherever we are located, we are all seeking to create more equitable economies for our local communities so that everyone can grow and prosper.
In July 2020 we launched the Co-operatives Unleashed report. This sets out practical ways for councils to encourage and enable the start-up and growth of businesses that adhere to the Co-operative Values and Principles. Councils have a key role to play in supporting co-operatives, especially when it comes to giving local communities ownership over local assets and services.
Three ways in which councils can be proactive are:
We have a lot of combined experience, wisdom and knowledge across the Network and it’s our aim to share this best practice so that we can all learn from this and grow the cooperative economy in our areas.
The CCIN has established a Leaders/Cooperative Leads Group to help drive forward initiatives to grow the co-op economy. This Group has identified some of the key themes that councils can follow in order to grow their local economies, this is not an exclusive list, but gives a good framework for the type of activities taking place across our membership.
There are two key themes:
To support these key themes the CCIN has developed a training programme with the Co-operative College for councillors and officers to help explain the concepts.
