Dear ICA Members,
Dear Youth Network,
We are reaching out to you from the ICA Youth Network Executive Committee to ask for your involvement in a global youth initiative, the Replication Project.
Some of you may have heard about it already. For those who haven’t, this is a project designed, lead and managed by the Youth Network Executive Committee, and funded by the International Summit of Cooperatives. Thank you again to Madame Monique Leroux and her team for believing in this initiative and the power of youth cooperative entrepreneurship.
The program will be launched this year and aims to have a global reach. We will choose at least 8 projects (two per region) and fund them with a maximum of EUR 10,000 per project. We will also recruit mentors from the ICA network to help support the building of strong foundations and structures. To learn more, click here.
One of the key aspects of the project is that we do not want to have an “investment only” project. We wanted the initiatives to feel a strong connection to the cooperative movement. We will match the developing youth coops with mentors that can support their development. We are looking for mentors in the field of work of the projects as well as their geographical area.
Projects will be diverse in nature and we will only be able to match the projects with their mentors once we have selected the projects in late September. In the meantime, we are asking you for your collaboration and commitment to the young cooperative entrepreneurs. It is time to support the new generation of cooperatives in their very early phase of development.
If you are interested in mentoring a youth coop, and helping these amazing initiatives flourish, attached is a mentorship form.
Thank you in advance for your collaboration.