Hackney Coops Weekend: celebrate your local coops and social enterprises
The vital role Hackney’s coops and social enterprises play in creating a fairer borough for employees and the community will be the focus of a weekend of activities marking International Day of Cooperatives 2023.
The global event celebrates organisations that are run by and in the interest of their members – whether that’s employees, customers or the community.
The borough’s own Hackney Coops Weekend – hosted by local coop support organisation Hackney Cooperative Developments in partnership with Hackney Council – will offer an opportunity for Hackney’s coops to network and collaborate, for local organisations to hear about how becoming a cooperative can benefit their business and their workers, and for the public to find out more about some fantastic ethical enterprises right on their doorstep.
This kicks off with the Hackney Coops Fair in Dalston’s Gillett Square on Friday 30 June, where more than a dozen local cooperatives and social enterprises will be showcasing their services and products.
The events will also see both in-person online and in-person networking sessions and social events, a walking tour of some of Dalston’s best cooperatives, and a series of family fun events in Haggerston Park.
Hackney’s first Co-ops Weekend builds upon our historic and proud support for co-ops and co-operative values in Hackney. Just this year we passed a first truly o-op focused budget, which set aside almost £70,000 to support the creation of co-ops to deliver services where there is market failure and there isn’t a robust business case for insourcing.
In addition, we have proudly insourced over £14 million of services, most recently Parking Enforcement and we are spearheading our new Spacebank initiative, bringing together council owned buildings to ensure we are supporting local businesses, social enterprises, voluntary, community and third sector tenants through the properties the Council owns.
It is very fitting that this year’s Co-op Weekend is being hosted in collaboration with Hackney Co-operative Developments, a strong Dalston and Hackney institution and one the Council has been proud to support over the years.
We are celebrating an altogether different way of doing business. Over 8 million co-operatives around the world employing ten percent of humanity all benefit from this British invention Co-operatives. Come celebrate with us and join our inclusive economy.
The Hackney Coops Weekend follows a year in which Hackney Council became a member of the Cooperative Councils’ Innovation Network, agreed new investment to support the setting up of new cooperatives, and celebrated the re-opening of Bradbury Works – a brand new co-operative managed affordable workspace delivered with council support.
See the full Hackney Coops Weekend programme.