Young co-operators from around the world gathered last month for the National Youth Summit, hosted by Co-operatives UK alongside its annual Co-op Congress in Rochdale.
Co-operatives UK CEO Rose Marley opened the session with a reflection on the changing world of politics.
With inherited party political allegiances becoming less common, younger generations now have an opportunity “to carve out new futures,” she said, adding that through co-operation, “democracy in our everyday lives will become the new democracy”.
“The opportunities that the co-operative movement presents will provide solutions to the challenges that we’re facing across the world, but not by us, not by my generation – it has to be by your generation.”
Co-op Group chair Debbie White pointed to the work of the retailer’s Young Members’ Group, which inputs on the retailer’s decision making, as well as its partnership with children’s charity Barnardo’s.
The Group has raised £5m for the charity and is working towards a target of £7m, to support children and young people to access food and mental health support.
White also spoke about the Group’s Co-operative Academies Trust, which runs 38 schools across the north of England, teaching 22,000 students a curriculum which includes the co-operative values and principles.
Ending with a plea to those in the room, White highlighted the importance of young co-operators being vocal about what they need from the older generation.
“Help us understand what it is we need to do… We need your input and guidance, so please don’t be shy and help us to support you.”
Next, BBC presenter Sile Sibanda hosted a panel with four young people about the moments that inspired their career journeys and what they have learned along the way.
Perry Blake shared his experiences that led to the founding of 21UP, a youth empowerment CIC designed to create opportunities for and support young people to reach their potential.
When he started 21UP, Blake explained that he had “no resources whatsoever’.
“I had no referrals. I had no funding. I had nothing. I was working in construction. But I figured I’ve got passion. And sometimes passion is enough, and with passion, you’ll figure out you’ve just got to be driven, you’ve got to be resilient, you’ve just got to keep trying.”
Related: UK Co-op Congress brings world movement to Rochdale birthplace
For May Armstrong of Glasgow Student Housing Cooperative, their co-operative journey started with frustration at the state of housing in their university’s city.
“We’ve started to think it’s normal – it’s expected that students should live in very poor housing conditions and spend more than half their incomes on rent, and it’s just the way that they live.”
Armstrong was searching for a sense of community when they arrived in Glasgow during Covid, and found it in Glasgow Student Housing Cooperative, an organisation they saw “really cared about people”.
Glasgow Student Housing Cooperative recently acquired its first property, with support from Student Co-op Homes, the UK’s federation for student co-operative housing.
Another panellist who spoke about the importance of physical spaces for people to come together was Anthony Scott of Kitty’s Launderette, a community-owned launderette which doubles as social space in the Everton/Anfield area of Liverpool.
“I’ve never quite stepped into a business or an organisation where you could truly feel like, ‘Oh, wow. This is as much me as it is about the people who are working here’”.
After volunteering with Kitty’s, Scott gained a job with the co-op through the government’s youth employment scheme, Kickstart, and is now the co-op’s community lead.
Kitty’s is currently crowdfunding for an electric delivery van and rooftop solar panels, which would enable the co-op to reach more people in the community.
A similarly community-rooted co-op is Sister Midnight, which is on a mission to open Lewisham’s first collectively owned live music venue. Sister Midnight’s origins can be traced back to a record shop where local people were already co-operating in the broader sense of the word, says co-director Lottie Pendlebury.
Related: Sister Midnight looks to create a grassroots music venue
“It was very DIY, and I think the whole ethos of the way that it operated was very much people coming together to allow it to function,” said Lottie Pendlebury.
Sister Midnight has raised £400,000 and has secured a building in Lewisham via the local council, which it is currently renovating.
Attendees then had a chance to connect with one another during a 60-minute Co-op Talk Shop, featuring topics including finance, housing, arts and music, community projects, journalism, science and energy and tech and digital.
The day also featured practical workshops with the Co-operatives UK team on the step-by-step process of setting up a co-op, as well as fundraising, and an arts workshop with Allie’s Art Club, a London-based community benefit society that works with people to improve their sense of wellbeing and develop strong social connections through the arts.
The summit joined the Co-op Congress for its final session of the day, which looked at the importance of intergenerational co-operation. The keynote address came from youth campaigner and policy advisor Rylie Sweeney, who highlighted the importance of true co-creation with young people.
“It’s not just listening to young people,” she said, “but building the agenda with them, not just inviting them into spaces, but shaping those spaces together from the start, not just asking for input, but making decisions together.”
To be effective, this work must be intentional, she added.
“Co-creation and collaboration takes time, it takes trust and it takes care. But when it’s done well, it can change the game for everyone.
“When young people and adults work with each other, not around each other, we don’t just get better ideas, we get better systems.”
