If Prime Minister David Cameron is searching for a prototype to fuel his Big Society plans, he should pound down the door of a certain housing co-operative in Kent.

Inside he will find Paula Farrow, whose experience and background make her an ideal cog in the wheels of the proposed Big Society machine, where individual action leads to community benefit. Apart from serving 14 years as chair at Minster Housing Co-operative, Paula is also a school governor, runs a local pre-school playgroup and chairs two more committees.

Her round-the-clock civic involvement has been realised despite leaving school without any qualifications. “I had no idea what a housing co-operative was at 16, but now my life revolves around them,” says Paula.

Her rebirth as a community-minded tenant began, aged 31, after “a messy divorce” led her away from her privately owned family home and into her first rented one. Facing a new and emptier life, Paula was empowered by the chance to live in a housing co-operative home and become a trained chair of the board at Minster, a new housing co-op on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.

CDS Co-operatives, the largest secondary housing co-operative in the UK, built the 36 homes for Minster in 1996. CDS helped the co-op to achieve independence three years later by securing a bank mortgage for it to buy the properties, which are rented to tenant members who control their management collectively through an elected executive committee.

CDS, which trains new co-op board members, launched Paula’s newfound desire to learn by financing a two-year management course. “I had never come across a housing co-op before and I started to get involved straight away,” she says. “I became chair because no-one else would do it and I wanted to reap the training benefits. Now, 14 years on, I’m still chair”.

“It’s changed my life. Without the co-op, life would be entirely different and I’d probably be stuck in a 9 to 5 job, come home and shut my door. But I feel that I want to give something back and embrace life.”

Paula certainly does that – only getting paid for 12.5 of her average 70-hour working week – and barely gets time to watch her favourite TV show, EastEnders.

But housing co-operatives don’t only benefit human dynamos like Paula. They also provide the most disadvantaged people – usually females – with vital work experience, which often leads to paid work. “Housing co-operatives provide females with a platform to fulfil the working needs they can’t access elsewhere,” says Paula.

Minster’s management committee consists of 13 women and two men. “A lot of the women are single mothers living at home with low self-worth,” she adds. “They join our committee and feel like they’re really contributing to something worthwhile. After training, I’ve seen their self-esteem climb tremendously.

“Educational standards are irrelevant, no qualifications are required and everybody has something useful to say. One man can’t read, another has mental health issues but they bring great ideas and feel valued.”

By getting involved and sacrificing time at committee meetings, it’s possible to go much further. In little more than 10 years, Paula (now 44) traversed the qualifications gap to being virtually engulfed by them.

“I completed a HND in housing studies and every training course you can imagine: housing, law, construction, management, even a NVQ in childcare,” she says. Then she started training other tenants at conference workshops, sat on housing services sub-committees and became a co-op tenant board member at CDS.

“We represent all the tenants of all the co-ops linked to CDS,” says Paula. “It’s crucial to have us onboard because no-one knows their communities more than tenants. We act as the tenants’ voice to improve tenant-led businesses.”

Her expertise has led her to sharing platforms with Dame Pauline Green, president of the International Co-operative Alliance, and playing a role in shaping foreign social housing policy by speaking in Malta and Republic of Ireland.

“I have to pinch myself when I’m invited to speak internationally because I’m just Paula from the Isle of Sheppey and there’s nothing special about me. I set myself goals and feel that I have to give back to my community. If I’ve got a chance to make a difference I tend to do it.”

Now, despite her active life that includes looking after her disabled husband and two children, she’s pondering a move into local politics. If her political life grows like her housing career, David Cameron had better enlist Paula into his Big Society fast – before she comes after his job.