ExtInked - UHC to tattoo 100 people with endangered species

On 12 November UHC Collective, a design co-operative, will embark on a once in a lifetime social experiment.

The Manchester-based co-operative will be opening a new exhibition of 100 illustrations of the most endangered species in the British Isles and these illustrations will then be tattood, live, onto 100 volunteers.

The exhibition, in Salford, launches to coincide with Charles Darwin’s birthday bicentennial and has been developed With the expert assistance of prominent conservation charities and the artistry of tattooists from Ink Vs Steel.


The result of this unique work will be an army of ambassadors for threatened and rare birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, plants and fungi.


The exhibition on the evening of Thursday 12th November 2009 and will Continue until the 1st of December. Live tattooing commences on Thursday 26th November and continues until Sunday 29th November.


If you want to do more than just watch, UHC is encouraging those who are interested in becoming life-long ambassadors and being tattooed with an endangered species to come to the exhibition from the 12th November.

www.uhc.org.uk

Co-operative celebration for Social Enterprise Day

The East of England Co-operative Society will be holding a co-operative celebration event in partnership with Suffolk County Council and Suffolk ACRE on Social Enterprise Day Thursday, 19 November.

Richard Samson, Chief Executive of the East of England Co-operative said: “We are pleased to be able to make it possible for so many people involved in social enterprise to come together for this event.

“Specialist help and advice about setting up social enterprises and co-operative businesses will be available, as well as help for those who already have their organisation up and running.

“Young people too are an important element of the day and with the backdrop of the global economic crisis we need to support and encourage young people, who are our ‘co-operative entrepreneurs’ of the future.”

The day will demonstrate social enterprises in action when students from Copleston High School, Ipswich, will run a co-operative Christmas enterprise, experts will offer advice and guidance to those interested in setting up their own business. A café will also be run as a co-operative by young people from the Princes Trust.



Surrounding all this will be a market place of co-operative and social enterprises such as the Foster Care Co-operative and Ipswich Food Co-operative, whilst The Co-operative Gateway East of England will run an advice surgery for social enterprises and co-operatives or for those wanting to start up their own socially enterprising business.

The day will run from 10.30am to 3.30pm. Everyone is welcome to come along and share in the celebration of Social Enterprise Day and get a feel for what is different about co-operative enterprise.

The East of England's event is one of hudreds taking place across the day to celebrate Social Enterprise.

www.eastofengland.coop

Community owned shop inspires local activism

Burton in Lonsdale Village Shop near Carnforth, Lancashire, is a bit different from your average store. It's a shop owned by the local community and as such has strong local support.

So when faced by a problem of what to do with a blanked-off window that dominated the frontage, it turned to the community for ideas.

Local artist, Marion Hodgson, came up with a solution that has delighted everyone in the village by transforming the space into a unique depiction of what the shop sells inside. Marion says: "I wanted to show what the shop sells so I brought a few goods back home at a time, arranged them on a shelf and painted them. Andy Warhol it is not!"

Everything is painted in meticulous detail: from a jar of marmite to a duster, from a newspaper with a half-completed crossword to a pack of very edible looking sausages.

Burton in Lonsdale is one of around 200 rural communities in the UK which, rather than lose their only shop, took matters into their own hands and bought it.

In the four years of community ownership the shop has gone from strength to strength and its success shows what an enterprising community can do for itself by calling upon the skills and energy of its individual members.

For committee member, Jean Smith, "Marion's marvellous painting shows what can be achieved when a community pulls together".

http://www.burton-in-lonsdale.net/village_shop.htm

Celebrating financial co-operatives across the globe

With credit union membership in the UK up by ten per cent, International Credit Union Day on Thursday 15 October, will celebrate the success of credit unions around the globe.

186 million people worldwide choose credit unions and latest figures from the Association of British Credit Unions (ABCUL) in June 2009, show that the 325 credit unions belonging to ABCUL were managing around £450million of members’ savings on behalf of over 550,000 people, with approximately £370 million out on loan.

International Credit Union Day, this year themed “Your Money, Your Choice, Your Credit Union”, will not only help to raise awareness of the invaluable work credit unions are doing, but it will also give members the opportunity to get more involved in the credit union movement as a whole.

According to Mark Lyonette, Chief Executive of ABCUL, there has never been a better time to celebrate the success of the credit union sector.

“Credit unions, as financial co-operatives and community-owned and controlled organisations, have proved their durability during the economic downturn as they offer local people a well-trusted financial solution,” he said.

“The recent economic crisis has highlighted the benefits of mutual ownership and credit unions have been successful in this country, and all over the world, because of the way they look after their owners – the members. There are approximately 186 million members of 54,000 credit unions in 97 countries worldwide whose members collectively own assets of US$1.2 trillion."

www.woccu.org/icuday

Craft co-operative lobbies Scottish government - with a humpty!

The Harris Tweed Artisans Co-operative has been busy lobbying the Scottish Government. But rather than producing dry policy papers and reports, the co-operative presented the First Minister Alex Salmond with a caricature humpty!

Nikki, a member of the co-operative, can be seen here presenting the humpty to the First Minister. Note: the real Alex Salmon is the one to top of the picture.

The Harris Tweed Artisans Co-operative was formed in February when 10 businesses joined together with the aim of working together to promote and market the unique and diverse Harris Tweed products that they each design and produce.

It is the first co-operative to bring together people who work with tweed regardless of what type of products they are producing and represents a new approach to the marketing and sale of Harris Tweed products.

www.lewisstudio.co.uk/HTAC/index.html

BCRS keeps Walsall Community Transport moving

A community transport scheme in Walsall has been assisted by a finance co-operative. Black Country Reinvestment Society (BCRS) has loaned £40,000 to Walsall Community Transport to assist their off-season cashflow.

Based in the old Midland Counties dairy in Little Bloxwich, Walsall Community Transport was set up in 1993 to offer transport to schools and community groups that were not served by direct bus routes.

John Elliot, chief officer, said: “We have an annual turnover of around £800,000, most of which is in contractual activities, such as disability day care and student groups. Many of our clients are schools and colleges, so in the holidays, our business is quiet. The long summer shut-down affects our cashflow well into October. We receive no financial support from our local authority and have no cash reserves and no opportunity to build them up, so cash flow is critical to our survival.

“We have a good relationship with our bank and have an overdraft, but the personal security required on loans is a problem when you have volunteer directors. We could not have kept going without the overdraft and the BCRS loan, and we could not entertain developing new initiatives and bettering our services to the community.”

As Paul Kalinauckas, chief executive of BCRS, which is a member of Co-operativesUK, explains: “The problem with getting a loan from the banks for this kind of company is that personal guarantees are expected from the directors nowadays, and most of them are volunteers. They’re not going to put their personal assets on the line for funding a community enterprise, so, they are at a disadvantage. The banks would normally want to lend to them – this is a good, solid business – but with no security, they won’t.

“As a local small business fund, BCRS has a more flexible approach to lending. We look at the business and the people running it first, because our security is the quality of the operation itself. We are particularly proud of Walsall Community Transport because of the double bottom line of economic and social impact it is having in the community.”

www.bcrs.org.uk