Neighborhoods Mini-clubs Kazi Abdur Rouf Visiting Scholar Leadership, Higher Education and Adult Education OISE University of Toronto July 03, 2012

Concept Neighbourhood Mini-Club (NMC) is a mini-cooperative program for low income neighbours To network and form groups, to develop collective behaviour and cooperative values To facilitate thinking and forming groups Continue to interact with group members to develop their self- esteem as well as collective esteem To develop entrepreneurial skills, financial discipline and leaderships among members

Concept continue-2 To share information and exchange their thoughts and experiences Exposure to different ways of incomes and to overcome poverty Develop negotiating power To engage in social businesses

Advantages To free people from isolation and a monotonous life. To help members develop partnerships to solve their problems To think of to involve in income generating activities and engage in innovative social business projects Co-operatives generally have twice the survival rate of other private business Credit unions prefer lending to cooperative members To free them from poverty.

Survival rates of Co-operative businesses vs private companies Survival rate of business after…. 5 years10 yearsLong term All cooperatives 64%46%30% Private sector companies (Statistics Canada %20%N?A

Objectives of the Neighbourhood Mini-Club Program (NMCP) To organize and facilitate neighbourhood networking among low income people to develop cooperative behaviour and increase solidarity To assist club members to find alternative solutions for their social and economic problems; Connect members with local credit unions and other economic resources ; To mobilize them to initiate and run community social and economic programs in order to reduce their poverty

NMCP Services Organize open-house sessions, create dialogue among club members to discuss benefits of social economy and social enterprises Discuss existing types of Canadian clubs/cooperatives Facilitate forming neighbourhood mini-clubs Record and monitor club members activities Facilitate members’ involvements in income generating activities, recycling businesses, and many other social businesses. Organise and conduct trainings/workshops on moral education, mini- club management, financial literacy, managing social enterprises and small business, green development, citizen engagement, conflict resolution Encourage graduated members (after one year) to engage in sustainable social businesses and Connect and refer them to public resources, social services, settlement counselling services, social enterprise funds and community economic services.

Importance of Neighborhoods mini-Clubs Low income immigrants, single mothers have less interaction collaborations with their neighbours New generations loss connections with their neighbours Reducing collectivistic behaviours Suffering them from isolation, a monotonous life and frustration In Ontario “O’ dollars invest for promoting cooperative Grassroots CO needed to organize networking among them

Cooperative gap widens Although Credit unions are increasing ; however, cooperatives development trend is decreasing in Canada For example, in Saskatchewan Numbers of co-ops decreasing 15% in Membership -10% ( Assets -59% Revenue -62% In Ontario : Cooperatives among low income : No statistics, no record In Quebec : Cooperative growth rate is increasing (+152%) ) Source: (Diamantopoulos, 2011) After 2005 Cooperative development is more decreasing in Canada Farmers numbers are decreasing 20% in in Canada ( Source: (Carlton University, 2012) 223 firms (1% of co-ops enterprises) Source: U of Wisconsin 2009.

Strategy: Start with informal memberships NMCP is facilitating group formations and connecting group members to local resources and record members activities in the community Easy to form groups within neighborhoods informally Get experience to continue memberships with neighbors, develop skills of accountability, respectfulness and trust each other Avoid administrative burden of registering with Coop Acts Develop social capital and collectivity Gain experiences and develop leadership skills Financial agenda after compact entrepreneurship development

Structure of the NMCs Three-five neighbours of the same sex, age group and class on a block form a neighbourhood mini-club informally Block Centre (BC): a minimum of four mini clubs in a county Neighbourhood Mini-Club Cluster Centre (NMCC): Three County Centers make one NMCC Cluster Worker (CW): CW is a primary service provider to organise, facilitate and serve the club members

Operation Areas 1 st year, NMCP will work in Keele and St. Clair neighbourhoods 2 nd year expand to Etobicoke South Lakeshore, Etobicoke North and Regent Park 3 rd year expand to Scarborough South, Cox Well, Scarborough Middle, Scarborough West and Melbourne area 4 th year across GTA

Challenges The Neighbourhood mini-club (cooperative) concept is different from the traditional cooperative principles NMC members might be reluctant to try the program without seeing an upfront economic benefit Toronto is an advanced, industrialised, individualistic society; it would be hard to develop cooperative values among people To get financing for the club members’ projects.

Thank you Comments/Suggestions