Co-op Support and Development, and Movement Building

There are a number of working groups that make up the federation, some of these are strategic working groups such as the Co-op Support and Development group and the Movement Building group. These play a more strategic, directional role thinking about the ‘bigger picture’, compared to other working groups which get more involved in operational activities.

This page contains information about each group and you can sign up below.

Contents:

Co-op Support and Development

Co-op Support & Dev meets on the 3rd Thursday of every other month in the afternoon. This group needs at least 5 members and it currently has 3, so we are looking for at least two more members to ensure it runs effectively.

Anyone is welcome to join this group! You don’t need to be a qualified Co-op business advisor. You do have to be a member of workers.coop, but individuals can now do that (get in touch with secretary@ for more info).

As long as you have a sense of what sort of support a worker co-op needs, or the sector as a whole to thrive, this group wants to hear from you.

By joining you will help make decisions over what support and development workers.coop should be delivering, having strategic oversight, make budgetary decisions and proposals for new projects, and opt to get involved in current programmes.

Book in a quick chat to find out more about this group, or sign up.

Sign-up to Co-op Support and Development

Co-op Support and Development Purpose

  • Providing access to coop support services and specialist training
  • Providing networking opportunities
  • Supporting coops to identify and develop new trading and development opportunities
  • Providing opportunities for those interested in cooperatives to connect to and learn from existing work coops
  • Providing guidance and support for starting, converting to or growing working coops

Domains

  • Responsible for creating our co-operative support and development strategy and work plan based on the overall strategy and budget set by workers.coop
  • Oversee the delivery of this strategy and work plan through commissioning projects
  • Create a safe and genuinely egalitarian culture and space for supporters and worker members to explore, decide and oversee our strategy and delivery of work.

Co-op Support and Development Projects

  • Co-op Conversations
  • Peer networking
  • Punchcard! Podcast
  • New Worker Induction
  • Mentor and advisor match making
  • Givers’ Gain business networking for co-ops
Sign-up to Co-op Support and Development

Movement Building

The transition from the Mobilising working group to the Movement Building strategic group has been a bit slow last year, although we managed some well-attended meetings, we faced hurdles including most members of the former group stepping back while the Operations group underwent worker changes.

We are pleased to announce this January 2025 the Movement Building group will be meeting monthly on the last Wednesday of the month. We have a new paid worker, Mira, who is bringing energy and oversight, and an approach based on alliances and partnership building. A 2025 strategy is being drafted and will be co-created by group members, which we expect to launch at the start of this year.

As with all of our working groups, any member of workers.coop can join this strategic group. Individuals can join workers.coop by becoming a worker-member. The only criteria for this is sustained involvement in a working group, email secretary@ to ask to join.

Sign-up to Movement Building

Movement Building Purpose

  • Building a grass roots base of worker cooperative organisers and supporters
  • Developing, compiling and disseminating educational and promotional resources to make the system of worker control and worker ownership more relevant and accessible to new workers
  • Participating in national and international cooperative networks and campaigns
  • Making alliances with other social and environmental movements

Domains to be explored by the new group

Example Movement Building Projects

  • Events
  • Worker Co-op Weekend
  • Co-op Fortnight
  • Autumn Assembly
  • Speaking to worker co-ops (phone banking and visits)
  • Comms merch and materials

Book in a quick chat to find out more about this group, or sign up.

Sign-up to Movement Building

What is a strategic working group?

Last year workers.coop restructured its approach to strategic planning and delivering work resulting in two new strategic working groups (SGs), Co-op Support and Development and Movement Building, which play a strategic role alongside the Board and Operations groups.

As members we have created strategic groups that align with our mission categories. SGs are responsible for setting strategy related to their mission points; planning and commissioning projects to meet their strategy; and thinking about the ‘bigger picture’. SGs are not responsible for doing work and will not get involved in operational activities.

In summary, Strategic groups are accountable for setting and delivering on their strategic objectives, and for ensuring that their strategy and any actions taken to meet it align with the overall vision, mission and values of workers.coop. SGs are accountable to the board.

How do they work in practice?

SGs will be able to decide on their own strategic objective and on how to deliver against these objectives. They will also be able to decide how to spend money allocated to them. The Operations group, made up of the paid workers, will provide guidance and information to the SGs and ensure that their decisions align with the overall direction and priorities of workers.coop.

In terms of who does the work, project groups will be set up to complete projects or in direct response to comissioned work. Anyone from the SG can join project groups or pitch projects. An example of a project is workers.coop’s Co-op Fortnight campaign.