Association of Women Cooperative Managers

(AMECOOP)

Presentation

AMECOOP is a group of women from Madrid who share the following features: they are women, they are partners and/or active workers in co-operatives, they believe in co-operative projects and women’s role within them.

AMECOOP is an open space for encounter, communication and debate -from a gender perspective- regarding economy and employment, where all women may find their own space.

ObjectivesTo promote co-operative work among women, encouraging their autonomy and self-management.

To create spaces for encounter, communication and reflection for women partners of co-operatives.

To foster women’s participation within the economic world.

To develop training programs and projects for women who are interested in self-employment.

To create channels for the collaboration and co-ordination with other women’s entities and other representatives of the economic world.

To contribute towards the incorporation of Positive Actions within the working realm in general, and particularly, to incorporate gender perspective to the core of the co-operative movement.

To co-operate with other women members of co-operatives abroad.

It is aimed at

AMECOOP is fundamentally aimed at:

Women partners and members of co-operatives

Women who want to start up a co-operative business

Women looking for technical and/or occupational training.

Intervention

AMECOOP focuses on different intervention areas that shape the development of the programs and projects it is part of.

These intervention areas are given by the association’s objectives and are linked to its general services, the services addressed to co-operatives and those addressed to co-operative promoter groups.

Intervention Areas:

Incorporation of gender perspective and conciliation measures within the economic and working realities. Participation and development. Encouragement of working diversification (horizontal and vertical segregation). Promotion of women co-operativism.Equality of opportunities between men and women within educational, social and working reality. Training for self-employment in co-operatives.

How we work

AMECOOP forms part of a network among other organizations. It contributes with its knowledge of self-employment and co-operative management and tries to combine resources and actions regarding women and employment. 

AMECOOP collaborates with different organisations and entities, such as: the European Social Fund, Institute for Gender Policies, Community of Madrid Women Council, Carolina Foundation, various City Halls of the Madrid region, educational entities like institutes and universities, and different public and private entities –international, European, state and local-.

Services (I)

AMECOOP, as an association of women partners of co-operatives, supports all co-operative initiatives that come from women and offers different services, both to already existing co-operatives and to the groups intending to set one up.

The services AMECOOP offers areGENERAL:                           

♦ General information.     ♦ Training programs: Training from a gender perspective. ♦ Occupational Training programs. Technical training and tools for co-operative projects management. ♦ Employment promotion programs. Planning, scheduling, performance and assessment. ♦ Awareness-raising programs.♦ To complement other programs for women. Personalised actions.

Services (II)

CO-OPERATIVE PROMOTER GROUPS:♦ Information and advice for the creation of co-operatives.♦ Help with the procedures and bureaucracy to constitute the co-operative enterprise. Diagnosis, feasibility and business-plan. ♦ Advice for subsidies and aids.♦ Elaboration of statutes.♦ Investment, feasibility and forecasts studies. ♦ Financing studies.♦ Management support programs.

Services (III)

EXISTING CO-OPERATIVES:♦ Market and sector analyses.♦ Marketing plan, audit.♦ Statutes adaptation or mistakes rectification, powers of attorney, dissolution or liquidation, etc.♦ Assisted Management programs.♦ Promotion of inter-cooperativism.♦ Permanent learning training programs. Technical training for different sectors and all the areas within business management.

BENEFICIARIES:

The Association works for the integration of women who are out of the labour market and the social life.

This type of group is integrated by women with familiar not shared responsibilities: immigrant women, 45-year-olds and above, women who want to be reincorporated in the market and who live under the social protection system (welfare).

Main activities The accomplishment of studies on the situation of women within the companies. The processing of proposals and equality/ conciliation plans to improve the presence of woman in co-operatives.The advising and support to the enterprising women in the creation of their own company under the co-operative form. The development of plans of promotion of the women in the co-operatives (access to the governing board, improvement of professional qualifications), paying special attention to the fight against the discriminatory practices and the implementation of measures that foster conciliation of the professional life, private and family life.

PROJECTS

Equal“ Conciliation, a condition for the equality"

EQUAL "Between Cronos and Ceres, conciliating in the time and space"

EQUAL "By the Active Diversity in the Labour Market"

Leonardo Da Vinci "Enterprising Competente-EU (ECEU)“

Gender training programs for adults (formation for unemployed and continuous formation)