CoopStarter Project

The current economic crisis is hitting European businesses hard, and younger generations are paying most of the bill. We are convinced that now more than ever cooperatives are the business model of the future and they are key to sustainable prosperity. As cooperative organisations, we feel a great responsibility to find ways to contribute to a solution to unemployment, especially for young people.

Cooperative organisations have realised that younger generations lack the business education and training needed to become successful entrepreneurs. Furthermore, younger generations seem to lack understanding of the advantages of working in a cooperative enterprise.

Therefore, 8 partners from across Europe have created the project CoopStarter in order to make the cooperative business model known to younger generations, and to accompany people willing to set up a cooperative through the start-up phase. With this project, we want to encourage and inspire young entrepreneurs to carry out their business ideas, and provide them with the tools to make them successful. 

The partners of the project CoopStarter are Cooperatives Europe, Febecoop from Belgium, NABCO from Ireland, Kooperationen from Denmark, Coompanion from Sweden, Kapa Network from Greece, Legacoop Liguria and Confcooperative/Irecoop Emilia-Romagna from Italy. 

The partners have produced Ready, Steady, Coop! This publication is intended to support cooperative development agencies that accompany young people who want to start their cooperative business. Download the publication from here. 

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.