We are a government funded organisation devoted to helping our community in any way we can, while making a few bucks along the way by doing things like Fundraisers, etc. The Youth Co-operative services is a summer project that takes approximately 15 youth between the ages of 12 and 17, and teaches them how to start and govern their
own workers co-op to be able to respond to the needs in their com
munity.The youth
offer a range of services, anything from mowing lawns and weeding gardens, to dance
classes, braiding hair and painting. With this project, youth develop a sense of
autonomy and community pride, and keep education present throughout the summer. The
facilitators go through a training period where they learn about co-operative values, the
7 principles of co-operatives, forming committees, teaching methods, and when to pull
back so the youth themselves can take over. The facilitators guide and train the youth
about committees, such as the executive, finance, human resources and marketing
committees, and how to chair a meeting, etc... They run their co-op themselves, they
produce their own meeting minutes, organize and quote their own contracts, develop
fundraising events, all while only getting guidance from the facilitators and local
committee. It teaches the youth that though they are young, they have the capabilities
of making changes to their environments and it teaches them about cooperation and
working together to fulfill a need. The first youth cooperative was created in 1983, in Hearst, Ontario. A dozen young
francophone students without jobs got together at their local youth drop-in centre and
decided to create their own employment by offering their services to the community. The will exerted by this group of youth mixed with the co-operative morals of the drop-in
centre introduced the first Youth cooperative of services. The YCS has now been implemented in 2 communities; Notre Dame de Lourdes, which
has now completed their second year in operation, and Winnipeg, which had their first
year of operation in 2011. Notre-Dame was run in French, and Winnipeg was run in
English. Maintaining bilingualism with this project is important to us as we feel it
addresses and gives the opportunity to a larger population. There was a very high
ethnic diversity in the Winnipeg co-op which helped those youth that were new to
Canada, develop friends and develop that sense of belonging. Both communities had
nothing but positive views of the program, and the facilitators and youth would like to
come back again to be members of next years co-op, which in itself is a success factor. Throughout the summer, we noticed a growth in the youth’s confidence and
independence. The YCS has allowed the youth to work on their leadership skills, learn
to communicate and express their opinion, make decisions, solve problems and learn to
organize themselves while preparing for the workforce. In addition, the youth demonstrated more interest in participating in local events and
taking part in the community. The long term effects of the youth cooperative of services are to help develop
community pride, to support future community leaders and entrepreneurs and to
facilitate communication between generations and to develop co-operative awareness
to maintain the movement.
