WUNRN
COOP - International Co-Operative
Alliance
WOMEN & COOPERATIVES - SUCCESS
STORIES
SOUTHERN ITALY - WOMEN'S CARE
SERVICES COOPERATIVE BREAKS FREE FROM DEEP-ROOTED SEXISM
Founded
by nine young unemployed women in 1990 in Scalea, a pretty town along the Calabrian
coast, the Idea 90 social cooperative quickly became a local leader in
childcare provision. It now works with public authorities and many businesses
in the local area to provide a range of services, mostly for children
(nurseries, summer schools) but also adolescents at risk of social
marginalization, the elderly and the differently abled. The fact that the
cooperative’s services enable women to continue working even after becoming
mothers fits perfectly with its already-strong feminist ethos, which goes
against the entrenched sexism often found in southern Italian culture and
society.
The original impetus for the cooperative’s founding came from Emilia Mezzatesta, now the cooperative’s president. “Meritocracy and a spirit of sacrifice and innovation distinguish our ‘mission’,” she says. The cooperative’s team of women (there is one man out of the six members and four permanent employees) are aged 20 and up, and, says Mezzatesta, “with grit and determination, we have been disproving for over two decades the image of a woman from southern Italy who does not see, does not hear, does not speak.”
The cooperative has always funded itself, and is fiercely proud of its independence. “That makes us co-protagonists in our growth,” says Mezzatesta. “We resolutely challenge those who would still like to see us subjugated to chauvinist policies, pushed behind the gynaeceum [women’s quarters in Ancient Greek homes], waiting for something to change.”
“In the meantime,“ she continues, “some of us have awoken from the deep coma and are looking beyond the bedspread, and have discovered with great wonder that today, more than ever before, cooperation is woman, a woman able to reconcile family, work, enterprise, while fully respecting herself and others.”
Promoting cooperative values is essential to Idea 90’s mission, values that Mezzatesta sees as providing services for people in their psychophysical entirety, body, soul and spirit. Working in a cooperative determines a social awareness and knowledge, with a process of sharing accompanied by personal and group growth. “There are many advantages to the cooperative model,” she says, “ranging from the material (lowering of costs, tax breaks) to the spiritual, including the development of one’s own self and the interaction with the other that in a kind of fusion becomes ‘us’, the collective identity able to promote culture and richness in one’s own territory.”
As well as the regular childcare services, Idea 90 also organizes school integration for differently abled children and arts therapy workshops for autistic and differently abled children and adolescents. Training adults in arts therapies, including dance movement, art, music and drama, will be an important part of the cooperative’s future development, through the St-Art School project, launched in 2012. In collaboration with an arts therapy and creative sciences institute in Puglia and ART.ED.O., the Mediterranean centre for arts therapies and holistic disciplines, Idea 90 will be provided advanced training in arts therapies.
Innovation and training will always be part of Idea 90’s development, and Mezzatesta looks to the future with ambition and optimism. “We are determined to scale the heights of quality,” she says, “while strengthening the social and educational services in Calabria, becoming the indisputable leader in the field. Presumption? No, a desire for liberation, knowing that there is something more and that it is our right and duty to pursue it and put it at the service of our community.”
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http://prezi.com/bh0awqdklwyr/choises-young-womens-co-operative/
Australia - CHOISES Young Women's Housing Cooperative
CHOISES
Cooperative Housing for Young Women in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs Young Women's
Cooperative Ltd CHOISES Young Women’s Cooperative has provided secure and
affordable housing to young women in Sydney’s eastern suburbs for more than a
decade. The cooperative currently houses eight young women with diverse
circumstances.. “We focus on women because giving women a safe and affordable
space to live provides us with an opportunity to reach our goals while bridging
the financial gap in gender equality” - Amelia Cox, CHOISES Treasurer .
All
of the women living in the community are member-directors on the CHOISES Board,
assuming the following roles: Chairperson, Executive Secretary, Membership,
Tenancy, Rent Officer, Maintenance, Treasurer. This ownership structure means
that each member living here shares responsibility and has a stake in how their
own residency is run. The Board meets once a month to report on what is
happening in their areas of responsibility, to make communal decisions, and to
pass motions and distribute responsibilities. Prospective members are invited
to attend meetings so they can get an understanding for how the cooperative is
managed and determine if it is right for them. Whilst each member-director has
a formal responsibility to fulfill within the housing community, they all help
each other out in small ways, and use the monthly meetings as a sounding board
for new ideas and ways to manage maintanence concerns. Members not only share
formal responsibilities in running the cooperative, but also have communal
areas and maintain a herb and vegetable garden for collective use.
CHOISES
has a focus towards low income earners, and each member's rent reflects a
percentage of their earnings. Members are expected to contribute equally and be
willing to actively participate in the running of the cooperative and
importantly... An ambition of their own... As one CHOSES resident reflected:
"Living in a women's cooperative gives me the support and financial aid I
need to achieve my study and career goals independently. Every day is
challenging, but rewarding. I feel lucky to have earned the opportunity to be a
member director of CHOISES."
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