If there is to be a “cooperative movement” at all, then young people – with our idealism, our drive, and our imagination – must be at its center. While many movements appeal to young people organically, successful movements must prioritize tangible support, resources, mentorship and structure specifically to youth. Movements like ours must remember that young people must be centered in our work in part because, as people marginalized from positions of power, they are uniquely situated to benefit from cooperative structures while simultaneously growing into roles of organic leadership. If the cooperative movement fails to offer a path to building youth power in our ranks, young people will look elsewhere for inclusion – at our own movement’s peril.
This toolkit offers urgent insight into the issues and challenges that coopyouth face across the globe while underlining tangible methods and practices that are replicable everywhere. And Lippold Cheney is exactly the kind of organic leader and organizer our movement desperately needs to compile these resources because of her proven ability to troubleshoot and organize alongside cooperative youth. Perhaps even more saliently, Lippold Cheney is unwilling to shy away from the hard conversations and conclusions that collectively illustrate where cooperative institutions have failed to support young people’s participation in the movement, and how we might imagine transformative alternatives commensurate with our movement’s inherent radicalism.
This resource will be a gift to cooperativists who are young, young-at-heart, or who understand that the inclusion of – and eminent respect for – young people is a prerequisite for the real cooperative movement our people and planet so desperately need.
Jeffy Noven
USA