The Power of We: In search of future co-operative leaders

With young people three times more likely to be unemployed than adults and over 75 million youth worldwide looking for jobs, it is no surprise that youth unemployment has become a key issue on the world politics agenda.

The lack of opportunities for young people across the world has also led to a phenomenon of alienation amongst youths, with 6 million young people having given up looking for a job.

The International Labour Organisation expressed its belief that the co-operative enterprise model can help to overcome the current financial crisis and decrease youth unemployment across the world, contributing to social inclusion and poverty reduction.

Co-operatives are a model where people work together as one, they run on the Power of We.

As value-based enterprises with a local approach, they are trying to address the youth’s apathy by engaging young people in stimulating projects.

Although the current financial crisis has posed a great challenge to co-operative development, co-ops have proved to be more resilient model than their capital-centred counterparts. More than 100 million people are directly employed in co-operatives around the world, while the total number of co-op members reaches around one billion.

In Spain, Mondragon organises a summer school every year, trying to educate young people about co-operative principles. In Africa, the Nigerian Youth Co-operative Network, with more than 10,000 members, encourages those who have dropped out of school to go into agriculture and create sustainable co-operative enterprises in order to tackle poverty and promote food security.

Students across North America are carrying on four decades of tradition in building co-operative communities seeking social justice, through the North American Students of Cooperation. In Britain, one year after the riots, the Co-operative Foundation — along with its seven charity partners — hosted a festival in seven UK cities to prove that local young people are a force for good.

In America and Canada young people are teaching their peers about the advantages of Credit Unions as part of the Young & Free programme. Tim McAlpine, the creator of Young&Free explained the best part was: “People related to people, not companies—Young & Free is not artificial advertising, it's actual young people discovering that credit unions are good and then relaying that back to their peers in their own voices.”

Securing a future for the co-operative movement depends upon appealing to the young people of today, also the leaders of tomorrow. José Antonio Chávez, Representative of Youth Board of the International Co-operative Alliance said “one of the priorities of the Youth Network of the International Co-operative Alliance is to encourage the active involvement of the youth in co-operatives and in this way seek to perpetuate the co-operative model across time.”

Co-ops need to co-ordinate their efforts to promote the co-operative enterprise model, whilst giving young people the opportunity to show they can bring innovation and creativity. Youths are eager to show what they are capable of. They only need a chance to show they can make a positive change through joint, co-operative efforts. The International Year could mark a historical shift in the history of the co-operative movement. And the youth could play an important role in making this happen.