The Social Solidarity Economy (SSE) is often seen as the economy of the future, thanks to its collaborative governance models and the positive impact of its projects. In France, the SSE accounts for around 10% of the national economy, while in Europe the figure is 9%.

What's more, the European Commission has drawn up an action plan for the social economy, one of the priorities of which is to strengthen the visibility and recognition of the SSE across Europe. With the SCOPE project, we want to contribute to developing this visibility in Europe, by focusing on cooperatives.

Cooperatives are an innovative way of operating that can be of interest to young people and businesses alike. Recently, in France, Duralex was taken over by its employees in the form of a cooperative (SCOP), saving over 200 jobs. The democratisation of cooperative models needs to become more widespread at European level. Our aim is to support and train project leaders, volunteers and employees, who want to create and develop cooperatives for young people and adults.

Our project plans to create guides to promote the social economy, translated into different languages, describing the process of creating and implementing cooperatives for young people and adults, at local and transnational level. Once the guides have been created, we will develop training programmes for those involved in these cooperatives. We will test these training courses on a target group and improve them over time.

We will actively participate in the dissemination of these training programmes and guides through physical and online events, as well as through the creation of ‘commons’ accessible to all.

Objectives:

• Promote the social and solidarity economy through cooperatives.
• Strengthen the skills of those working with and involved in the SSE.
• Create practical guides and training programmes.
• Establish a transnational network to share best practice.

Our association has been running a Youth in Service Cooperative project for over 6 years, aimed at enabling young people in a priority neighbourhood (the Bourgogne neighbourhood in Tourcoing) to get active, keep busy and learn more about the business world. Since then, we have been regularly contacted by project leaders to help them set up cooperatives.

Challenges:

• Encourage cooperation on a European scale
• Create practical guides for creating and managing EYFS, translated for transnational use
• Set up a training programme for support staff.
• Disseminate these initiatives through training and support.
• Create an online platform for sharing resources.
• Set up an evaluation and impact measurement system.

Call for partners

We are looking for a partner who is interested in the approach of this project and capable of creating relevant training programmes based on its experience in the field of SSE and cooperatives. The ideal partner would be an organisation with recognised expertise in the SSE, a proven track record in cooperative training and development, and a willingness to collaborate on a European scale.

 Capacity Building

 Education and Training

 Adult Learning

 Erasmus+

 Youth Workers