Our mission is to provide, support and promote Co-op and Community-Led housing so more people can be involved in helping meet their own housing needs and aspirations. We work with 40 housing co-ops offering services that enable co-ops to thrive as successful businesses.
Alongside working with housing co-ops we also champion the co-op model and we aim to enable the wider co-op sector to thrive by supporting other co-ops. Where possible we try to build relationships with other co-ops to collaborate on projects across different areas of our business. This is important to us as we strive to work in line with our values and the way we work is as important as the work we are doing. Therefore, collaborating with like-minded value-based co-ops is a priority for us.
In the spirit of co-ops fortnight and sharing what a difference co-ops make we would like to put the spotlight on some of the fantastic co-ops we have worked with…
In 2015, Altgen supported our team as we moved office space. They designed the great work space which we have in Borough, which is light, full of plants and allows teams to work together easily as well as break away and work in flexible working space away from the desks. Altgen also worked on staff engagement before the office move, to communicate the benefits and generate excitement and positivity surrounding the move. We then hosted Altgen at our offices in Borough for the next year. Altgen is a worker co-op and the team work to support young people setting up co-ops. During 2015 we also hosted Blake House, a fantastic filmmakers co-op. It has been great to work alongside other value-driven organisations within our work space!
In June 2017, we began our collaboration with Graphics Co-op to plan and design our new website. The Graphics co-op are an Edinburgh based design, print and digital services company, providing services for good causes. We managed to overhaul our much outdated website quickly, within budget and with great service from the team at Graphics. Despite the team being based in Edinburgh we managed to complete the whole project without ever being in the same room. We look forward to working with the team again in the future!
Last year we also worked alongside Calverts, a London based design and print co-op. We have worked with Calverts on a number of occasions over the years including on this years branding project. Calverts produced our newly branded headed paper, business cards and compliment slips. Thanks Calverts!
This year our Chief Executive, Linda Wallace was invited to talk at Space4, London Cotech meet up organised by Outlandish.The theme was Building successful communities and Linda was invited to speak about the co-op housing model. It was great to share so many inspiring stories of the work of co-ops, learn about some great examples of co-operation and plenty of exciting co-operative projects happening across London. It really is an exciting time for co-ops!
In the future we are keen to work with lots more co-ops on new projects. Get in touch if you would like to work with us, we’d love to hear what you’re up to and how we could collaborate!
