Creating a Culture of Co-operation with young people and schools

Working in close partnership with the East of England Co-operative Society we have worked across the eastern region this academic year hoping to ‘make a difference’ to the attitudes of young people.

We were ‘On the C.A.S.E.’ (for co-operative and social enterprise) in October and November when we worked with 50 students from Copleston High School in Ipswich. Using co-operative methods, the trainers helped and supported the students in setting up their own co-operative business where the students looked at marketing, business planning, health and safety and team building.

Then during November they brought their products to the Co-op Education Centre in Ipswich and sold them as part of an event to celebrate Social Enterprise Day. Co-ops from across Suffolk also took part as did students from the Princes Trust programme, run by Ipswich Town Football Club, who ran a café as a co-operative business during the day. The event was well attended and had the backing of the Mayor of Ipswich (who was most impressed by the young people) as well as many local co-operators and guests from the social enterprise world who attended on the day.

Also in November 2009 we ran two training sessions for Primary School teachers in Essex and Suffolk introducing them to our curriculum pack ‘More Than Just a Shop’.

Also in the Autumn the ‘On the CASE’ programme was tailored to fit students with Special Educational Needs from Lowestoft. Directly reaching 30 Year 10 students and involving the whole year group on the last day, trainers worked with students with learning difficulties and helped them to set up co-op businesses where they could market their service or product in conjunction with raising money for Children in Need.

The project involved local employers and volunteers and all the activities were participative and inclusive, underpinned by the co-operative values and principles and taught using the co-operative methodologies.

Teachers at the school commented

“I’ve never seen him so animated”

“The students don’t like change and it was very difficult work but they rose to it”

In February we ‘hit’ Fairtrade Fortnight and worked with 14 Primary schools across Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex involving over 400 pupils. The programme introduced the concepts of Fairtrade looking at where products come from what this means to the farmers and their families by way of social benefit. Food tastings and lots of fun too was had by all the staff and pupils and we hope we have left a big Co-operative Fairtrade mark that will encourage support for fair trade for life!

18th March, 2008

Website launch!

The new website for 1st Question is now up and running. Future expansion plans include introducing a link to a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) in the site, but as you can see a great deal of information on 1st Question's work is now available online.

19th December, 2007

1st Question North

Our current trading area covers East Anglia and particularly Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex but we are in the midst of expanding into the North covering Yorkshire, Humberside and the North West.

Working in co-operation with The Co-operative Group, United Region, we are planning an expansion of our business to provide high class training across these areas. Twenty four trainees from across the north of England have been undertaking a 'train the trainers' course facilitated by CLADA (Co-operative Learning and Development Associates) and supported by 1st Question Team East. Work is already underway to set up 'gigs' in the region and the new Team North looks forward to encouraging everyone to use co-operative Values and Principles in a wide range of settings.

Please contact Andrea, our Administrator, for more information.

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