Let’s build communities of the future together
Today (12 October 2022), we’re delighted to officially launch our new five-year strategy – ‘Building communities of the future together’.
The product of more than 18 months of collaboration with young people, community groups, funders and the Co-op, our new strategy is a bold statement of intent as a participatory grant-maker. It puts co-operation and learning at the heart of our ways of working and commits us to achieving a youth-led vision of fair communities in 10 years’ time built on co-operative values.
What’s more, it will also help us add value to Co-op’s world-class community and campaigning work as we deliver on its vision of ‘Co-operating for a Fairer World’.
Sign up to this webinar to find out more, live on Microsoft Teams, from 1pm today.
Let’s build communities of the future together.
About us
We’re the Co-op’s charity and we’re co-operating for a fairer world.
We believe co‑operation is at the heart of strong communities and this makes us a different kind of funder. We work closely with communities, we listen and we learn.
Our new strategy is made up of three key principles:
- A vision of fair communities in 10 years’ time built on co-operative values. This ‘Future Communities Vision’ has been shaped by almost 100 young people UK-wide. It includes a range of strategic priorities that we’ll support to bring this vision to life, including increased equity and inclusion, health and wellbeing, and youth activism. Read more in this blog from Dr Asimina Vergou, our Head of Learning & Impact.
- A new and distinctly co-operative way of funding organisations and young people to achieve the Future Communities Vision. This moves us away from being a ‘traditional’ funder as we partner with others to achieve our overall Future Communities Vision. Our new funding approach will emphasise a focus on participatory, flexible and unrestricted grant giving while our learning will prioritise helping our partners get better at what they do.
- Co-operation with Co-op and other partners to extend our reach and impact. Do you share our Future Communities Vision or work to improve lives for young people and communities across our strategic priorities? Contact us to discuss potential ways we can work together.
Next steps
We’re proud of our new ‘Building communities of the future together’ strategy. We believe it will help us trailblaze alongside the Co-op to create a fairer future for us all.
Sign up to today’s webinar for more details.
You can also keep an eye on our blog and our Twitter channel for updates on when we launch the first round of funding from this strategy.
Let’s build communities of the future together.