People are the basic component of a cooperative – working collectively is a strength, but can also be a challenge! Finding and gathering motivated people is a major step of your cooperative project. Depending on the size and the form of the cooperative that you are building, but also on the resources available, your organisation may rely exclusively on volunteers, involve workers, or hire staff. In any case, launching your cooperative will need a motivated and trustworthy team to make this project a success.

Typically, a multistakeholder elderly care cooperative may involve:

• Organisers, i.e. people involved in setting up the cooperative and the ongoing planning, such as a steering group or management committee.
• Workers/volunteers, i.e. formal and/or informal caregivers (nurses, relatives…), and
• Beneficiaries, i.e. elderly care receivers.

Getting in touch with people who have similar interests and ideas, mobilising them and forming a proper group may be challenging. The local community and local active organisations, including the cooperative movement, may be helpful in this regard. Even though your cooperative organisation is still far from being established at this stage, do not hesitate to get in touch with your local contact point, who may provide you with relevant tools and advices, and might know people, cooperatives and organisations that can help you in your project.

Also, the complementary material “Recruiting and managing a volunteer team” offers some tips to gather people and animate a group.