Cooperatives Yorkshire and Humber

Co-operatives UK in partnership with the Plunkett Foundation are offering the following Making Local Food Work free workshops to any community food enterprise or anyone supporting them. The workshops would be particularly suitable for groups in the pre-start stage.

The workshop aims are:
1. To offer an easy to understand and inspiring overview of the start-up process for those unfamiliar with starting a co-operative or community enterprise.
2. To signpost to other helpful resources such as guides and websites.
3. To signpost to people and organisations who can help.
4. To inspire the creation of new co-operative and community enterprises by showing a wide variety of what is possible.

What we'll do?
The workshop uses real community food enterprises as examples of what is possible and how different groups have approached the process of starting a co-operative or community food enterprise. However, the process and issues are the same whether you’re taking over your local shop, running a community supported agriculture scheme, a farmers' market or setting up a community orchard.
The workshop is split up into different sections relating to the different stages on the start-up journey from the original idea on the back of an envelope to opening day. We have divided up the start-up process into several stages:

1. Early days – the idea.
2. Who are we? – deciding who will have what relationship with the organisation.
3. Sharing the load – deciding who is going to do what in the start-up process.
4. Putting flesh on the bones – working up the idea.
5. Show me the money – how are you going to finance it?
6. Getting organised – formalising the structure.
7. Are we nearly there yet? – checking back with the community.
8. Come and join us – recruiting more people.
9. Opening day – everything finally in place.
10. One year already – things you need to do to keep going.
We will use group work and some of the common tools to explore the key stages in this process.
Participants will receive a copy of Simply Start-up - a guide to the process of starting a Co-operative or Community Enterprise.

For more details and to book:

Leeds, 3rd April 2013 http://leeds-mlfw.eventbrite.co.uk/