In Our Hands was a co-operative entrepreneurship (“co-opreneurship”) program that aimed to facilitate the development of co-operative enterprises that meet the employment needs and entrepreneurial aspirations of Canadian newcomers. The goal of the project was to support newcomers to Canada through all the stages of starting and growing a co-operative business and to test the viability of co-operative entrepreneurship as an economic mobility pathway for newcomers. The pilot project ran from January 2022 to January 2024.
This project supported newcomers and immigrants in Alberta and British Columbia who were interested in starting businesses cooperatively.
This project successfully increased awareness, interest, and literacy among participants regarding the co-operative enterprise model and co-operative development process.
The most valuable things I learned were “About the cooperative model, its structural governance, its guiding principles, and its impact.
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