Stories.coop

Stories.coop was the world’s first global, digital campaign to spread the benefits of cooperation through the tradition of story-telling. It delivers the UN’s message “Cooperative enterprises build a better world” to the global public in International Year of Cooperatives  2012. Stories.coop was developed to demonstrate to the world the benefits of the co-operative way of doing business, through stories of cooperation. BCCM played an integral role in the design and development of Stories.coop – a collection of co-op stories from around the globe.

Read the Australian co-op stories profiled on Stories.coop

Aboriginal Medical Services
Aboriginal Medical Services is an Aboriginal primary health care service provider, offering medical and dental care as well as a drug and alcohol clinic nearby.

Borderlands Co-operative
The Borderlands Co-operative has been involved in community, social and international development, ecological sustainability, social justice and participatory approaches to research and evaluation since end-1997. It was formally established as a not-for-profit cooperative with elected Directors, in July 1998. We are a place for the meeting of like- and differently-minded people, also creating space to operate as a social- and ecological change network of mutually supportive organisations and groups. We have also provided consultancy and research services to community organisations and local government bodies in the form of program and service evaluation, social impact research and needs analysis in almost 100 projects.

Capricorn Society
Capricorn is a member based organisation proudly operating by cooperative principles to primarily support businesses in the automotive industry. This approach allows Members to better manage their businesses by saving time and money and ultimately to increase profits. Members are the owners too and are eligible to receive dividends, if declared. As a major player in the automotive parts buying sector Capricorn really does have power in numbers with over 14,000 Members and 2,200 Capricorn Preferred Suppliers internationally.

CHOISES Co-operative
CHOISES provides cooperative housing for young women in Sydney, Australia providing empowerment, learning, and real choices for young women.

Community Mutual Group
Australia’s largest inland community credit union which has retained local decision making and community involvement that sets us apart from our competitors. We aim to provide trusted community banking through our commitment to our member owners, our values of integrity, respect and fairness and the cooperative principles.

Norco
Norco is a dairy co-operative owned by our member suppliers who operate Australian dairy farms. Norco is committed to building its financial strength and stability, which includes enhancing the economic vitality and diversity of the rural and regional communities in which we operate, securing a sustainable supply chain and developing win-win partnerships in the markets that we serve.

Plumber Supplies Co-operative
Plumber Supplies Co-operative (PSC) sells plumbing gear to plumbers, many of whom are members. Customers of the co-operative obtain extra financial benefits – discounted prices, a rebate based on the volume of their purchases and an annual dividend based on the size of their shareholding.

The Renmark Hotel
The handsome and historic Renmark Hotel, in South Australia's Murray River region, is the oldest co-operatively owned hotel in the British Commonwealth. Since 1897 it has provided hospitality and fine local produce to the local farming community that owns it. Its manager, Michael Schuetze, says that when the small town of Renmark needed its first hotel, the community decided that they didn’t want private ownership. For more than a century they have owned and run the hotel through an elected board whose members are required to be local residents.

West Belconnen Health Co-operative
The West Belconnen Health Co-op is an affordable medical and health centre in the Australian Capital Territory that is owned by its patients. The Co-op has four sites with ten bulk-billing doctors, a nurse practitioner, practice nurses and psychologists, as well as space for community organisations to offer programs and services. The Co-op was started in response to a shortage of health services in certain parts of the ACT and after 2 ½ years of operation it has shown that the community can work together to make a difference.