Cooperatives Yorkshire and Humber

Lupine Adventure Co-operative gets £20,000 from Co-operative Fund

A newly established worker co-operative has received £20,000 from the Co-operative Fund to develop its services.
Lupine Adventure Co-operative, formed in late 2007, offers mountain-based outdoor recreation, education and training. It was established by four people with a strong track record in mountaineering. The members have mountain leadership, and rock climbing qualifications, spend their free time in the hills and volunteer with Duke of Edinburgh Award and others.
The co-operative will provide a range of services. A unique offering is Lupine’s vegetarian walking holidays in Scotland. They offer people the chance to have a week long guided walk through some of the most beautiful and remote areas of Scotland – Glen Coe, Skye and Cairngorm – with like-minded people, followed by great veggie or vegan food and good fun in the evenings.
Lupine also offers weekend long navigation courses and provides groups with a climbing instructor or mountain leader. In keeping with their co-operative spirit, the members of the co-operative will often provide leadership or training on a voluntary basis if groups need help but lack funds.
The main reason that the co-operative received the £20,000 funding, though, was to develop its outdoor education work with under 18 year olds. This includes enabling the co-operative to continue doing work on a voluntary basis with the Woodcraft Folk in Liverpool and Birkenhead, and to help them get work running the expedition part of the Duke of Edinburgh Award.
Andy Godfrey, one of the founder members, says that although the focus of Lupine is clearly on outdoor recreation, training and education, the members are very committed to being a co-operative.
Andy, who was also a founder of Footprint, a print co-operative in Leeds, explains: “Becoming a mountain leader is a time consuming business, and once you’ve done that you need a licence to do this kind of work commercially. Marketing and getting contracts and work is also better done collectively. It’s all about mutual aid.
“We are very overt about being a co-operative,” Andy concludes. “We are taking the message out to local authorities, to schools, to everybody we work with.”
http://www.lupineadventure.co.uk