Global digital campaign to tell the stories behind co-operatives

stories.coop is a global, digital campaign which aims to promote the understanding and an appreciation of the co-operative sector.

“Stories.coop will tell how many diverse and great co-operative experiences can be found around the world and how deep their impact is on the lives of millions of people, especially at this time, with the economic crisis beating so hard,” Gianluca Salvatori, ceo of Euricse, told the eDigest.

The campaign – with its story telling core - is a partnership between the ICA and the Italian research institute Euricse – the European Research Institute on Cooperatives and Social Enterprise, based in Trento, Italy.

stories.coop will feed one story a day to the official 2012 website, www.2012.coop, where it will appear as the major feature on any given day of the International Year 2012. That daily showcase story will be chosen by an independent panel of experts drawn from the co-operative sector.

Salvatori said the project’s key aim was to bring awareness of the breadth and strength of the co-operative sector to the realms of the general public. stories.coop seeks to attract the stories of both small and large co-operatives and across all sectors and regions.

Co-operatives will be able to submit their own stories to stories.coop.

At the heart of the project is a desire to represent all arms of the co-operative movement worldwide, regardless of the communications expertise of the co-operative. As such the project will contribute professionally written stories to facilitate the story-telling process.

Stories can be told through words, images or video. Submission to the site is free.

Source: ICA