Social cooperative ISSA was established in 2011 by group of young people, who at that time were unemployed or were working for longer period of time on temporary contracts. It means that all of them were at risk of social exclusion then. Organizing cooperative they had an aim to organize themselves a place of work that would be suitable, challenging and attractive to all of them. At the same time they wanted to promote vegan way of life.
At the beginning of activity of social cooperative ISSA, its first and main activity was opening a hostel. After some time they started to expand their activity by:
All of it wouldn’t be possible without support they got from European Social Fund for kick off and incubation period. But the cooperative is still developing despite the support for them has ended few years back. Lately they were even awarded in the contest on Social Enterprise of the year in Poland.
Important in this case is also way they have chosen on taking decisions in their organization, because most of valid decisions is taken in democratic spirit by discussion of all the members of the organization. But they have learned at the same time how to split the area of responsibility among all the members.
Author: Michał Sobczak